Banco Santander (SAN) & Its Peers Critical Survey

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) is one of 85 public companies in the “BANKS – FOREIGN” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare Banco Santander to similar businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership and dividends.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

9.2% of Banco Santander shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 25.4% of shares of all “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Banco Santander shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of shares of all “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Volatility & Risk

Banco Santander has a beta of 0.76, meaning that its stock price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Banco Santander’s peers have a beta of 0.66, meaning that their average stock price is 34% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Banco Santander pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Banco Santander pays out 18.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.4% and pay out 39.3% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Banco Santander and its peers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Banco Santander	1	3	5	1	2.60
Banco Santander Competitors	1349	4437	4759	231	2.36

As a group, “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies have a potential upside of 9.96%. Given Banco Santander’s peers higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Banco Santander has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Banco Santander and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Banco Santander	18.85%	12.14%	0.73%
Banco Santander Competitors	18.23%	13.30%	1.07%

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Banco Santander and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Banco Santander	$66.36 billion	$15.95 billion	11.47
Banco Santander Competitors	$154.73 billion	$7.21 billion	11.47

Banco Santander’s peers have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Banco Santander. Banco Santander is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Banco Santander beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, S.A. 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. The company also provides asset management and private banking services; and insurance products. In addition, it offers corporate and investment banking services; and digital payment solutions. Further, it offers online banking and financial services to retail, business, institutional, corporate, private banking and university customers and clients. The company was formerly known as Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and changed its name to Banco Santander, S.A. in February 2007. Banco Santander, S.A. was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.