Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $29.98, but opened at $31.34. Banco Santander Chile shares last traded at $31.3930, with a volume of 15,266 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BSAC shares. Morgan Stanley set a $38.00 price target on Banco Santander Chile in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Bank of America raised Banco Santander Chile from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 1st. Itau BBA Securities raised Banco Santander Chile from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Wall Street Zen raised Banco Santander Chile from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Banco Santander Chile currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.00.

Banco Santander Chile Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a current ratio of 0.48 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The stock has a market cap of $14.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.57, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $32.35 and a 200 day moving average of $32.58.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, April 13th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $791.52 million during the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 24.95%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 457.1% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 107,076 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,441,000 after acquiring an additional 87,856 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 140.0% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 47,222 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after buying an additional 27,549 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Banco Santander Chile in the first quarter valued at $240,000. Creative Planning raised its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 19.1% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,854 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $425,000 after buying an additional 2,697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in Banco Santander Chile in the second quarter valued at $2,915,000. 6.42% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Banco Santander Chile

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) is one of the leading financial institutions in Chile and a key component of the global Santander Group. The bank offers a comprehensive range of banking and financial services, including retail and commercial lending, deposit accounts, credit cards, wealth management, insurance products and corporate banking solutions. Headquartered in Santiago, it operates an extensive network of branches, ATMs and digital platforms to serve individual customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations across the country.

Originally founded as Banco de Santiago in the late 1970s, the institution became part of the Santander Group following the privatization wave in Chile during the late 1980s.