Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) Lifted 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 released on Saturday morning.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Stephens reissued an equal weight rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped 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, July 25th. Finally, DA Davidson upped 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, July 25th. 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 target price of $27.00.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SASR opened at $27.62 on Friday. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a twelve month low of $19.27 and a twelve month high of $31.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.54 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.48.

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. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a net margin of 12.31% and a return on equity of 6.44%. The company had revenue of $184.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th will be issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 14th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.92%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 66.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Scarborough Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $77,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at about $98,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $105,000. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at about $122,000. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 5,521 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $150,000 after purchasing an additional 1,595 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.