First Trust Advisors LP Sells 21,093 Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

First Trust Advisors LP decreased its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 15.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 111,523 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 21,093 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp were worth $3,759,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in SASR. LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 16,987 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $573,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Tritonpoint Wealth LLC now owns 20,119 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $678,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 26,583 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $895,000 after acquiring an additional 374 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc bought a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 14.8% during the fourth quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 9,560 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $322,000 after purchasing an additional 1,234 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a report on Saturday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Trading Up 1.0 %

NASDAQ:SASR opened at $27.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $28.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.59. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $21.37 and a fifty-two week high of $39.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.26 billion, a PE ratio of 61.93 and a beta of 0.96.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last released 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 net margin of 2.65% and a return on equity of 5.31%. Sell-side analysts expect that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.