Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) Coverage Initiated at StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) in a report issued on Friday morning. The firm issued a sell rating on the bank’s stock.

SASR has been the subject of several other reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of 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. 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 research note on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.25.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ SASR opened at $38.26 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.03. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 52-week low of $19.52 and a 52-week high of $39.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $32.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.06. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.14 and a beta of 0.94.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.06). Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.74% and a net margin of 11.54%. The firm had revenue of $189.81 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $101.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.62 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.55%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 71.58%.

Institutional Trading of Sandy Spring Bancorp

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SASR. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the first quarter worth about $301,000. Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 99,221 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,300,000 after acquiring an additional 7,492 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 1st quarter worth about $122,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 26.8% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 21,284 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $493,000 after purchasing an additional 4,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC increased its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 8.2% during 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

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.