Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at Zacks Research

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) was downgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Banco Santander Chile from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. UBS Group decreased their price target on Banco Santander Chile from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded Banco Santander Chile to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Banco Santander Chile from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Banco Santander Chile currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.40.

Banco Santander Chile Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Banco Santander Chile stock opened at $35.12 on Thursday. Banco Santander Chile has a 52-week low of $23.71 and a 52-week high of $37.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.55 billion, a PE ratio of 13.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 1.72 and a quick ratio of 0.48. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $33.98 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.21.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The bank reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $905.26 million for the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a net margin of 27.04% and a return on equity of 22.94%. On average, analysts expect that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.99 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Santander Chile

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new position in Banco Santander Chile in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,886,000. INCA Investments LLC boosted its position 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 during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander Chile during the fourth quarter worth $809,000. Finally, UBS Group AG raised its position in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 69.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 78,855 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,453,000 after acquiring an additional 32,297 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 6.42% of the company’s stock.

Banco Santander Chile Company Profile

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.