Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) Reaches New 1-Year High – Time to Buy?

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $11.79 and last traded at $11.7950, with a volume of 560258 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $11.72.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. DZ Bank cut Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Banco Santander presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Banco Santander Stock Up 0.7%

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $10.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $175.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.74.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The bank reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $20.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.32 billion. Banco Santander had a return on equity of 11.68% and a net margin of 17.90%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Banco Santander, S.A. will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Banco Santander Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 6th. Investors of record on Friday, October 31st were given a $0.0956 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 31st. This represents a yield of 263.0%. Banco Santander’s payout ratio is 20.21%.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 67.5% in the third quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,529,024 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $149,504,000 after acquiring an additional 5,856,034 shares during the period. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC raised its position in Banco Santander by 22.0% in the 2nd quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 14,482,986 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $120,209,000 after purchasing an additional 2,607,392 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in 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 during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its position in Banco Santander by 20.5% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 9,211,673 shares of the bank’s stock worth $96,538,000 after purchasing an additional 1,568,515 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Banco Santander by 4.4% in the third quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 8,981,872 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $94,130,000 after purchasing an additional 376,023 shares during the period. 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.