Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $27.00.

A number of research firms have recently commented on SASR. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth about $77,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $98,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $105,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $117,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the first quarter valued at approximately $122,000. 66.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Performance

SASR opened at $33.51 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.43 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $29.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.00. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 1 year low of $19.27 and a 1 year high of $34.19.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a net margin of 12.31% and a return on equity of 6.41%. The business had revenue of $184.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th were paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 14th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.06%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 66.67%.

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.