Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) Rating Lowered to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on SAN. Santander reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Weiss Ratings raised Banco Santander from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Banco Santander from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Banco Santander Price Performance

Shares of Banco Santander stock opened at $13.53 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $12.94 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.31. Banco Santander has a 1 year low of $8.29 and a 1 year high of $14.39. The stock has a market cap of $198.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.18, a PEG ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 0.72.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 29th. The bank reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by ($0.02). Banco Santander had a return on equity of 12.23% and a net margin of 26.92%.The company had revenue of $17.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.66 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Banco Santander will post 1.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Banco Santander by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,954,166 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,960,000 after purchasing an additional 95,069 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 14.3% during the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 713,050 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,364,000 after buying an additional 89,253 shares in the last quarter. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL purchased a new stake in shares of Banco Santander during the third quarter worth $5,181,000. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its position in shares of Banco Santander by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 4,861,360 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $57,024,000 after buying an additional 349,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Banco Santander by 471.0% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 60,797 shares of the bank’s stock worth $713,000 after buying an additional 50,149 shares in the last quarter. 9.19% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, SA (NYSE: SAN) is a Spanish multinational banking group headquartered in Santander, Spain. Founded in 1857, the bank has grown from a regional institution into one of Europe’s largest banking groups, operating a diversified financial services platform that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large corporate clients. Santander is publicly listed in Spain and maintains American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SAN.

The group’s core activities include retail and commercial banking—offering deposit accounts, payment services, mortgages, personal and auto loans, and small business financing—alongside corporate and investment banking services for larger institutional clients.