Traders Buy Large Volume of Banco Santander Call Options (NYSE:SAN)

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors acquired 13,194 call options on the company. This is an increase of 1,244% compared to the typical daily volume of 982 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Santander

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SAN. Atria Investments Inc boosted its stake in Banco Santander by 50.5% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 27,073 shares of the bank’s stock worth $138,000 after buying an additional 9,085 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 5.5% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 1,399,228 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $7,136,000 after acquiring an additional 73,204 shares during the period. Baron Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 19.1% during the third quarter. Baron Wealth Management LLC now owns 35,456 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $181,000 after acquiring an additional 5,683 shares during the period. Pathstone Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 1.7% during the third quarter. Pathstone Holdings LLC now owns 770,092 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,927,000 after acquiring an additional 12,659 shares during the period. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 14.3% during the third quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 176,023 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 21,997 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Banco Santander from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Banco Santander currently has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

Banco Santander Trading Up 3.9 %

SAN stock traded up $0.27 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $7.15. 5,710,059 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,165,348. 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 has a 52-week low of $4.27 and a 52-week high of $7.15. The company has a market cap of $108.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $5.68 and its 200-day moving average is $5.12.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The bank reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21. Banco Santander had a net margin of 15.88% and a return on equity of 11.90%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Banco Santander will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Banco Santander Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 30th will be paid a $0.1152 dividend. This is an increase from Banco Santander’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 30th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.4%. 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.