BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Cut to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) from a hold rating to a strong sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on BBAR. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Itau BBA Securities assumed coverage on shares of BBVA Banco Frances in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.50.

BBVA Banco Frances Price Performance

Shares of BBAR opened at $9.81 on Monday. BBVA Banco Frances has a twelve month low of $9.19 and a twelve month high of $25.01. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 20th. The bank reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $524.41 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $727.31 billion. BBVA Banco Frances had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 6.65%. Equities analysts forecast that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BBVA Banco Frances Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 18th were given a $0.0221 dividend. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. BBVA Banco Frances’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.15%.

Institutional Trading of BBVA Banco Frances

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of BBAR. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 199.9% in the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 2,381 shares of the bank’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 27.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,303 shares of the bank’s stock worth $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares during the period. Fox Run Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the 1st quarter worth about $211,000. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the 1st quarter worth about $224,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 123.3% in the 2nd quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,301 shares of the bank’s stock worth $252,000 after acquiring an additional 8,450 shares during the period.

BBVA Banco Frances Company Profile

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.