Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on BSAC. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Banco Santander Chile from $29.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Zacks Research upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Banco Santander Chile from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Banco Santander Chile in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Banco Santander Chile from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $35.40.

Banco Santander Chile Stock Performance

Shares of BSAC stock opened at $34.52 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $33.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $33.30. The firm has a market cap of $16.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.18, a PEG ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 0.52. Banco Santander Chile has a 1 year low of $23.31 and a 1 year high of $37.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a current ratio of 1.72.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The bank reported $0.87 EPS for the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a return on equity of 22.94% and a net margin of 27.04%.The business had revenue of $905.26 million for the quarter. Analysts predict that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Banco Santander Chile

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. USS Investment Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 1,561,544 shares of the bank’s stock worth $48,603,000 after purchasing an additional 488,676 shares during the period. INCA Investments LLC increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 48.8% in the 4th quarter. INCA Investments LLC now owns 1,064,274 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,110,000 after buying an additional 349,082 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in Banco Santander Chile by 221.0% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 271,827 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,457,000 after buying an additional 187,151 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Banco Santander Chile by 120.3% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 254,585 shares of the bank’s stock worth $6,747,000 after buying an additional 139,015 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WD Rutherford LLC purchased a new position in Banco Santander Chile during the 1st quarter worth $3,905,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.