Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the ten analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company.

Several research firms recently weighed in on SAN. Wall Street Zen upgraded Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, April 26th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Banco Santander from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Santander reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Banco Santander from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Banco Santander from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Santander

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Banco Santander by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 56,109,418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $658,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,719,432 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in Banco Santander by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 18,037,272 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $211,577,000 after acquiring an additional 398,787 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,766,849 shares of the bank’s stock worth $174,839,000 after purchasing an additional 237,825 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 8.5% in the third 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 last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 118.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,413,194 shares of the bank’s stock worth $128,741,000 after purchasing an additional 6,198,828 shares during the last quarter. 9.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Banco Santander Price Performance

SAN stock opened at $13.73 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $201.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.73. Banco Santander has a 1 year low of $7.86 and a 1 year high of $13.78. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $12.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $12.01.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 29th. The bank reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $17.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.66 billion. Banco Santander had a net margin of 26.92% and a return on equity of 12.23%. As a group, analysts expect that Banco Santander will post 1.11 earnings per share for the current 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.