StockNews.com Lowers Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) to Sell

StockNews.com lowered shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report published on Thursday.

SASR has been the subject of several other reports. Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a neutral rating and a $25.00 price objective for the company. Stephens reissued an equal weight rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $23.50.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp stock opened at $21.49 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $21.57 and a 200 day moving average of $22.94. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 12 month low of $19.27 and a 12 month high of $27.90. The firm has a market cap of $967.05 million, a PE ratio of 10.53 and a beta of 0.94.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.03. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.69% and a net margin of 12.74%. The company had revenue of $184.38 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $97.45 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.16 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 2.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.33%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s payout ratio is 66.67%.

Institutional Trading of Sandy Spring Bancorp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SASR. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 12,542 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $342,000 after purchasing an additional 414 shares during the period. Teton Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Teton Advisors Inc. now owns 34,000 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $729,000 after buying an additional 500 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 163,831 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,511,000 after buying an additional 505 shares during the period. CWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 30.0% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,217 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 5.4% during the third quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 16,297 shares of the bank’s stock worth $349,000 after acquiring an additional 838 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.