Short Interest in Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Decreases By 14.6%

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 896,200 shares, a decline of 14.6% from the December 15th total of 1,050,000 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 424,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.1 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research report on Saturday, January 11th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sandy Spring Bancorp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.25.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SASR. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 5.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 473,241 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $11,528,000 after purchasing an additional 25,546 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 10.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 807,940 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,345,000 after buying an additional 75,596 shares in the last quarter. Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 2nd quarter valued at $4,778,000. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,072,619 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,654,000 after buying an additional 35,271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Algert Global LLC raised its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 368.2% during the 2nd quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 64,419 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,569,000 after acquiring an additional 50,659 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Down 1.2 %

Sandy Spring Bancorp stock traded down $0.42 during trading on Thursday, reaching $33.66. The stock had a trading volume of 174,374 shares, compared to its average volume of 282,607. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 52-week low of $19.52 and a 52-week high of $39.55. The stock has a market cap of $1.52 billion, a PE ratio of 17.72 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $35.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.24.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $189.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.71% and a net margin of 11.54%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.62 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 71.58%.

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.