Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $45.43, but opened at $42.24. Grupo Financiero Galicia shares last traded at $43.8640, with a volume of 319,545 shares.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $60.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Grupo Financiero Galicia has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.50.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Trading Down 4.4%

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.57. The firm has a market cap of $6.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.94 and a beta of 1.48.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The bank reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter. Grupo Financiero Galicia had a net margin of 7.13% and a return on equity of 18.96%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 9th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.1541 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 2nd. This is a positive change from Grupo Financiero Galicia’s previous monthly dividend of $0.15. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.3%. Grupo Financiero Galicia’s payout ratio is currently 93.43%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Grupo Financiero Galicia

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GGAL. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 71.2% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 186,852 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,984,000 after buying an additional 77,740 shares during the last quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC purchased a new position in Grupo Financiero Galicia in the fourth quarter worth about $9,170,000. XTX Topco Ltd increased its stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 36.0% during the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 16,288 shares of the bank’s stock worth $879,000 after acquiring an additional 4,312 shares during the last quarter. PointState Capital LP increased its stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 170.6% during the fourth quarter. PointState Capital LP now owns 1,592,990 shares of the bank’s stock worth $85,926,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004,371 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alphadyne Asset Management LP raised its position in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 66.8% during the fourth quarter. Alphadyne Asset Management LP now owns 50,048 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,700,000 after purchasing an additional 20,048 shares during the period.

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.