Investors Purchase Large Volume of Grupo Financiero Galicia Call Options (NASDAQ:GGAL)

Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 6,401 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 196% compared to the typical volume of 2,160 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on GGAL shares. Zacks Research upgraded Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Grupo Financiero Galicia from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $68.33.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Price Performance

NASDAQ:GGAL remained flat at $50.37 on Friday. 810,422 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,172,977. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.52. Grupo Financiero Galicia has a 52-week low of $25.89 and a 52-week high of $62.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.19, a P/E/G ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 1.34.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 26th. The bank reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Grupo Financiero Galicia will post 3.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $0.6229 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 14.8%. Grupo Financiero Galicia’s payout ratio is 213.66%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Grupo Financiero Galicia

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GGAL. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 11,824 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 54,525 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,748,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares during the period. Deltec Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Deltec Asset Management LLC now owns 25,900 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 65,810 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,814,000 after purchasing an additional 677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 32,382 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,513,000 after purchasing an additional 686 shares during the last quarter.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Company Profile

Grupo Financiero Galicia is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As one of the country’s largest private-sector financial institutions, the company provides a comprehensive suite of banking, insurance and investment products to individual, small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and corporate clients. Its operations span retail and commercial banking, asset management, leasing, factoring and pension fund administration.

The core banking segment offers deposit and lending services, credit and debit cards, payment solutions and digital banking platforms.