Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Shares Gap Up – Here’s Why

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $29.98, but opened at $31.34. Banco Santander Chile shares last traded at $31.3930, with a volume of 15,266 shares trading hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BSAC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley set a $38.00 price target on Banco Santander Chile in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Itau BBA Securities upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Banco Santander Chile in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Bank of America upgraded Banco Santander Chile from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.00.

Banco Santander Chile Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 0.48. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $32.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.58. The company has a market cap of $14.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.57, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.52.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 13th. The bank reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 24.95%.The company had revenue of $791.52 million for the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Banco Santander Chile

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,113,470 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $82,507,000 after buying an additional 17,119 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,599,117 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,749,000 after buying an additional 5,660 shares in the last quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd lifted its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 45.5% in the 4th quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 1,561,544 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,603,000 after buying an additional 488,676 shares in the last quarter. INCA Investments LLC lifted its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. INCA Investments LLC now owns 1,263,892 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,214,000 after buying an additional 199,618 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 643,160 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $21,461,000 after buying an additional 57,400 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 6.42% of the company’s stock.

About Banco Santander Chile

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) is one of the leading financial institutions in Chile and a key component of the global Santander Group. The bank offers a comprehensive range of banking and financial services, including retail and commercial lending, deposit accounts, credit cards, wealth management, insurance products and corporate banking solutions. Headquartered in Santiago, it operates an extensive network of branches, ATMs and digital platforms to serve individual customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations across the country.

Originally founded as Banco de Santiago in the late 1970s, the institution became part of the Santander Group following the privatization wave in Chile during the late 1980s.