Banco Santander Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:SAN)

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders bought 3,528 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 83% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,930 put options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently commented on SAN shares. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Banco Santander from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Wall Street Zen cut Banco Santander from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Finally, Santander reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Banco Santander presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SAN. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Banco Santander by 2,038,075.5% during the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 7,643,158 shares of the bank’s stock worth $63,438,000 after purchasing an additional 7,642,783 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Banco Santander by 118.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,413,194 shares of the bank’s stock worth $128,741,000 after acquiring an additional 6,198,828 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. raised its stake in Banco Santander by 225.3% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. now owns 4,100,768 shares of the bank’s stock worth $42,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,840,145 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Banco Santander by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 56,109,418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $658,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,719,432 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Banco Santander by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,029 shares of the bank’s stock worth $134,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,811 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 9.19% of the company’s stock.

Banco Santander Stock Performance

Shares of SAN stock traded down $0.10 during trading on Monday, hitting $14.65. 4,573,663 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,090,768. The firm has a market capitalization of $215.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.73. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $13.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.61. Banco Santander has a twelve month low of $9.31 and a twelve month high of $15.00.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by ($0.02). Banco Santander had a net margin of 26.94% and a return on equity of 12.43%. The firm had revenue of $17.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.90 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Banco Santander will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.