Investors Buy High Volume of Banco Santander Call Options (NYSE:SAN)

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 13,194 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,244% compared to the average daily volume of 982 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Atria Investments Inc boosted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 50.5% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 27,073 shares of the bank’s stock worth $138,000 after purchasing an additional 9,085 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 5.5% in the 3rd quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,399,228 shares of the bank’s stock worth $7,136,000 after purchasing an additional 73,204 shares during the last quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 19.1% in the 3rd quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC now owns 35,456 shares of the bank’s stock worth $181,000 after purchasing an additional 5,683 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 770,092 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,927,000 after purchasing an additional 12,659 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 14.3% in the 3rd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 176,023 shares of the bank’s stock worth $898,000 after purchasing an additional 21,997 shares during the last quarter. 9.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on SAN. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. StockNews.com raised Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley raised Banco Santander from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Banco Santander currently has an average rating of “Buy”.

Banco Santander Price Performance

NYSE SAN traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $6.89. 1,706,191 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,188,963. The stock has a market cap of $104.32 billion, a PE ratio of 8.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.09. Banco Santander has a one year low of $4.27 and a one year high of $7.16. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $5.77 and a 200-day moving average of $5.15. The company has a current ratio of 2.24, a quick ratio of 0.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 13.83.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The bank reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21. Banco Santander had a return on equity of 11.90% and a net margin of 15.88%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Banco Santander will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Banco Santander Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be given a $0.1152 dividend. This represents a yield of 2.4%. This is a positive change from Banco Santander’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 30th. Banco Santander’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.28%.

Banco Santander Company Profile

Banco Santander, SA provides various financial services worldwide. The company operates through Retail Banking, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Wealth Management & Insurance, and PagoNxt segments. It offers demand and time deposits, mutual funds, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, loans, and various financing solutions; and project finance, debt capital markets, global transaction banking, and corporate finance services.