Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) Upgraded at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat reports.

Banco Santander Stock Up 1.5 %

NYSE:SAN opened at $4.84 on Monday. Banco Santander has a 12-month low of $3.20 and a 12-month high of $4.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $76.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.20. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.99.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 30th. The bank reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.18. The firm had revenue of $15.67 billion for the quarter. Banco Santander had a return on equity of 10.82% and a net margin of 19.29%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Banco Santander will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Banco Santander Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 7th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be given a $0.1027 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.2%. This is an increase from Banco Santander’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.09. Banco Santander’s payout ratio is currently 20.00%.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SAN. Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 2.7% during the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 21,100,827 shares of the bank’s stock worth $77,862,000 after acquiring an additional 547,609 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 9.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 20,137,558 shares of the bank’s stock worth $59,406,000 after acquiring an additional 1,777,193 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,786,825 shares of the bank’s stock worth $65,357,000 after acquiring an additional 892,960 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 41.4% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 14,148,083 shares of the bank’s stock worth $58,699,000 after acquiring an additional 4,139,669 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 2.5% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,038,463 shares of the bank’s stock worth $44,422,000 after acquiring an additional 298,818 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.19% of the company’s stock.

Banco Santander Company Profile

Banco Santander, SA provides various financial services worldwide. The company operates through Retail Banking, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Wealth Management & Insurance, and PagoNxt segments. It offers demand and time deposits, mutual funds, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, loans, and various financing solutions; and corporate finance, global debt financing and market, global transaction banking, and private debt mobilization solutions.