Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the five research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $27.00.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SASR. DA Davidson boosted their price target on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,470,621 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,182,000 after acquiring an additional 108,703 shares in the last quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 904,434 shares of the bank’s stock worth $22,032,000 after acquiring an additional 97,262 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 854,774 shares of the bank’s stock worth $23,284,000 after acquiring an additional 4,855 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 18.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 775,252 shares of the bank’s stock worth $18,885,000 after acquiring an additional 120,996 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1,199.7% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 694,867 shares of the bank’s stock worth $16,927,000 after acquiring an additional 641,402 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Trading Up 6.6 %

NASDAQ SASR opened at $31.42 on Monday. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 1-year low of $19.27 and a 1-year high of $31.85. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $26.96 and a 200-day moving average of $23.78. The firm has a market cap of $1.42 billion, a PE ratio of 15.40 and a beta of 0.96.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 12.31%. The company had revenue of $184.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th were given a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 14th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.67%.

About Sandy Spring Bancorp

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Sandy Spring Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, mortgage, private banking, and trust services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers financial products and services, including various loan and deposit products.