BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (NYSE:BBAR) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (NYSE:BBAR) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nine research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $20.00.

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BBAR shares. Itau BBA Securities raised shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BBVA Banco Frances in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. HSBC upgraded BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $21.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded BBVA Banco Frances to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Finally, UBS Group assumed coverage on BBVA Banco Frances in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $18.00 price target for the company.

BBVA Banco Frances Price Performance

BBAR stock opened at $16.80 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $3.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.69 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.07. BBVA Banco Frances has a 1 year low of $7.76 and a 1 year high of $25.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.22.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The bank reported $0.13 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.07). BBVA Banco Frances had a return on equity of 7.43% and a net margin of 4.46%.The company had revenue of $512.44 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $871.10 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BBVA Banco Frances Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 16th will be given a dividend of $0.0331 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 16th. This is an increase from BBVA Banco Frances’s previous monthly dividend of $0.03. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. BBVA Banco Frances’s dividend payout ratio is 41.05%.

Institutional Trading of BBVA Banco Frances

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in BBVA Banco Frances during the 1st quarter worth $211,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 16.5% in the 1st quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 86,549 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,596,000 after purchasing an additional 12,262 shares in the last quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances during the first quarter worth about $362,000. Candriam S.C.A. acquired a new position in BBVA Banco Frances in the first quarter worth about $1,214,000. Finally, Walleye Capital LLC bought a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances in the first quarter valued at about $637,000.

BBVA Banco Frances Company Profile

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.