Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) Raised to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report published on Thursday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on SASR. Stephens reaffirmed an equal weight rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $27.00.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp stock opened at $31.35 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a market cap of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.37 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.30. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $19.27 and a fifty-two week high of $31.83.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $184.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a net margin of 12.31% and a return on equity of 6.44%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SASR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 0.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,628,937 shares of the bank’s stock worth $56,338,000 after acquiring an additional 12,576 shares during the period. Denali Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 142,800 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,890,000 after acquiring an additional 14,300 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth $230,000. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 12,542 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $342,000 after buying an additional 414 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $218,000. 66.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Sandy Spring Bancorp

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Sandy Spring Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, mortgage, private banking, and trust services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers financial products and services, including various loan and deposit products.