Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.40.

A number of research firms have commented on BSAC. Zacks Research lowered Banco Santander Chile from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Weiss Ratings raised Banco Santander Chile from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. UBS Group decreased their target price on Banco Santander Chile from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised Banco Santander Chile from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 25th.

Banco Santander Chile Price Performance

Shares of Banco Santander Chile stock opened at $35.29 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a PE ratio of 13.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.51. Banco Santander Chile has a 12-month low of $25.51 and a 12-month high of $37.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.48 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.15.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The bank reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $905.26 million during the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a net margin of 27.04% and a return on equity of 22.94%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Santander Chile

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BSAC. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 457.1% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 107,076 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,441,000 after purchasing an additional 87,856 shares in the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC boosted its position in Banco Santander Chile by 140.0% during the 1st quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 47,222 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after acquiring an additional 27,549 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Banco Santander Chile during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $240,000. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 19.1% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,854 shares of the bank’s stock worth $425,000 after acquiring an additional 2,697 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Banco Santander Chile during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,915,000. 6.42% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Banco Santander Chile Company Profile

Banco Santander Chile is a Chilean banking institution and a subsidiary of Banco Santander, SA The bank provides financial services to individuals, small and midsize businesses, companies, and institutional clients throughout Chile.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, consumer and commercial loans, residential mortgages, credit and debit cards, payment services, foreign-exchange services, insurance-related products, and investment and wealth-management solutions. Banco Santander Chile also provides corporate and investment-banking services, including financing, cash management, and other services for larger companies and institutional customers.

The bank traces its modern history to Santander’s expansion in Chile and the consolidation of Banco Santander Chile and Banco Santiago in the early 2000s.