Systematic Financial Management LP Buys 97,262 Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

Systematic Financial Management LP lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 12.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 904,434 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 97,262 shares during the quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP’s holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp were worth $22,032,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 4.8% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 59,184 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,442,000 after acquiring an additional 2,701 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC raised its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 368.2% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 64,419 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,569,000 after purchasing an additional 50,659 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 8.2% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 23,438 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $571,000 after buying an additional 1,774 shares during the period. Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. bought a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,778,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 473,241 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,528,000 after buying an additional 25,546 shares during the period. 66.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SASR has been the subject of a number of research reports. DA Davidson raised their price objective on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target 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, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.00.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of SASR opened at $31.15 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $30.46 and a 200 day moving average of $25.48. The company has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.27 and a beta of 0.96. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $19.27 and a 12 month high of $34.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 12.31%. The company had revenue of $184.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $99.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. 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 dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.37%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 14th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 66.67%.

Sandy Spring Bancorp 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.