Cerity Partners LLC Buys 374 Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 26,583 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 374 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC owned about 0.06% of Sandy Spring Bancorp worth $895,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vestcor Inc bought a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth $204,000. Stifel Financial Corp bought a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 3rd quarter valued at $217,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS purchased a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at $228,000. Finally, Heritage Investors Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth $281,000. 66.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a report on Thursday. They set a “sell” rating for the company.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SASR opened at $27.87 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.86. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $20.42 and a 1-year high of $39.55. The firm has a market cap of $1.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.93 and a beta of 0.96.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.01). Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 2.65%. Analysts anticipate that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.88%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s payout ratio is 302.22%.

Sandy Spring Bancorp 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.