Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) Cut to “Hold” at UBS Group

UBS Group downgraded shares of Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Friday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on SAN. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b+)” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Barclays cut shares of Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Banco Santander presently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Banco Santander Stock Performance

NYSE:SAN opened at $12.21 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.31 and its 200-day moving average is $10.16. The company has a market cap of $181.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.99, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.73. Banco Santander has a 52-week low of $4.85 and a 52-week high of $12.31.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The bank reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $26.22 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%. Equities analysts predict that Banco Santander will post 0.83 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. raised its holdings in Banco Santander by 104.3% in the second quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 241,250 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,002,000 after purchasing an additional 123,150 shares during the period. Choreo LLC increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 120,933 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,004,000 after buying an additional 20,530 shares in the last quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC raised its stake in Banco Santander by 18.3% during the 2nd quarter. TrueMark Investments LLC now owns 271,453 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,253,000 after buying an additional 42,044 shares during the period. Barometer Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Banco Santander by 5,818.8% in the second quarter. Barometer Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,757,483 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $14,587,000 after acquiring an additional 1,727,790 shares during the period. Finally, LVW Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander in the second quarter worth about $321,000. Institutional investors own 9.19% of the company’s stock.

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.