Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) Shares Gap Up to $4.86

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $4.86, but opened at $5.01. Banco Santander shares last traded at $5.02, with a volume of 2,077,882 shares changing hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Barclays raised shares of Banco Santander from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th.

Banco Santander Trading Up 2.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.24, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a current ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $78.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.46 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $4.46 and its 200 day moving average is $4.14.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 30th. The bank reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.18. The business had revenue of $15.67 billion during the quarter. Banco Santander had a net margin of 19.29% and a return on equity of 10.82%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.14 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Banco Santander, S.A. will post 0.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Banco Santander Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.1027 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 29th. This represents a yield of 3.2%. This is an increase from Banco Santander’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.09. Banco Santander’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.14%.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SAN. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,786,825 shares of the bank’s stock worth $65,357,000 after acquiring an additional 892,960 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 41.4% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 14,148,083 shares of the bank’s stock worth $58,699,000 after acquiring an additional 4,139,669 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 1.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,217,199 shares of the bank’s stock worth $34,657,000 after acquiring an additional 124,106 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 770.4% during the third quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 7,722,405 shares of the bank’s stock worth $29,036,000 after acquiring an additional 6,835,153 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 6.9% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,008,881 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,313,000 after acquiring an additional 193,323 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 9.19% of the company’s stock.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, SA provides various financial services worldwide. The company operates through Retail Banking, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Wealth Management & Insurance, and PagoNxt segments. It offers demand and time deposits, mutual funds, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, loans, and various financing solutions; and project finance, debt capital markets, global transaction banking, and corporate finance services.