Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) Cut to “Market Perform” at Itau BBA Securities

Itau BBA Securities downgraded shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report released on Thursday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

GGAL has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Zacks Research raised Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from $72.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $68.33.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Stock Down 0.6%

Shares of NASDAQ:GGAL opened at $44.36 on Thursday. Grupo Financiero Galicia has a 12-month low of $25.89 and a 12-month high of $62.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $47.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.78. The firm has a market cap of $7.13 billion, a PE ratio of 18.11, a PEG ratio of 0.23 and a beta of 1.28.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 25th. The bank reported $1.14 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Grupo Financiero Galicia will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 24th were paid a $0.0531 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 24th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Grupo Financiero Galicia’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.27%.

Insider Activity at Grupo Financiero Galicia

In other Grupo Financiero Galicia news, Director Silvestre Moret purchased 224,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 8th. The stock was bought at an average price of $5.36 per share, with a total value of $1,200,640.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 3,000,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,080,000. This represents a 8.07% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders acquired 802,791 shares of company stock worth $4,253,109.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GGAL. NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 149.5% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 9,003 shares of the bank’s stock worth $490,000 after acquiring an additional 5,394 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 54,525 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,748,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 11,824 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 93.2% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 75,302 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,794,000 after purchasing an additional 36,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new stake in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $5,299,000.

About Grupo Financiero Galicia

Grupo Financiero Galicia is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As one of the country’s largest private-sector financial institutions, the company provides a comprehensive suite of banking, insurance and investment products to individual, small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and corporate clients. Its operations span retail and commercial banking, asset management, leasing, factoring and pension fund administration.

The core banking segment offers deposit and lending services, credit and debit cards, payment solutions and digital banking platforms.