Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Sees Significant Drop in Short Interest

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 953,700 shares, a decline of 17.1% from the August 15th total of 1,150,000 shares. Currently, 2.2% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 334,400 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SASR. Carmichael Hill & Associates Inc. increased its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Carmichael Hill & Associates Inc. now owns 11,785 shares of the bank’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 412 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 25,456 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 723 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 2.6% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 43,713 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,065,000 after buying an additional 1,104 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 13,176 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $321,000 after purchasing an additional 1,176 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC lifted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 17,344 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $402,000 after purchasing an additional 1,316 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on SASR. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com cut Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, DA Davidson increased their target price on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.00.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of SASR opened at $32.14 on Monday. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a one year low of $19.27 and a one year high of $32.38. 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 company has a market cap of $1.45 billion, a PE ratio of 15.75 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $29.48 and a 200-day moving average of $24.79.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $184.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 12.31%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th were issued a $0.34 dividend. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 14th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 66.67%.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Company Profile

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.