Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eight ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $36.00.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on BSAC. Morgan Stanley set a $38.00 target price on shares of Banco Santander Chile in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Banco Santander Chile in a report on Monday, April 20th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Banco Santander Chile from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Banco Santander Chile from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Banco Santander Chile to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th.

Banco Santander Chile Price Performance

Banco Santander Chile stock opened at $32.76 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $32.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.43 billion, a PE ratio of 14.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. Banco Santander Chile has a 12-month low of $22.77 and a 12-month high of $37.72.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 13th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $791.52 million during the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a net margin of 24.95% and a return on equity of 21.00%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,113,470 shares of the bank’s stock worth $82,507,000 after buying an additional 17,119 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,599,117 shares of the bank’s stock worth $49,749,000 after buying an additional 5,660 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 45.5% in the 4th quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 1,561,544 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,603,000 after buying an additional 488,676 shares during the period. INCA Investments LLC increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. INCA Investments LLC now owns 1,263,892 shares of the bank’s stock worth $42,214,000 after buying an additional 199,618 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 643,160 shares of the bank’s stock worth $21,461,000 after buying an additional 57,400 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 6.42% of the company’s stock.

Banco Santander Chile Company Profile

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) is one of the leading financial institutions in Chile and a key component of the global Santander Group. The bank offers a comprehensive range of banking and financial services, including retail and commercial lending, deposit accounts, credit cards, wealth management, insurance products and corporate banking solutions. Headquartered in Santiago, it operates an extensive network of branches, ATMs and digital platforms to serve individual customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations across the country.

Originally founded as Banco de Santiago in the late 1970s, the institution became part of the Santander Group following the privatization wave in Chile during the late 1980s.