BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Shares Down 4.7% After Analyst Downgrade

BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (NYSE:BBAR)’s share price was down 4.7% during mid-day trading on Friday after Citigroup downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. The company traded as low as $9.21 and last traded at $9.14. Approximately 144,926 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 794,991 shares. The stock had previously closed at $9.59.

BBAR has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Itau BBA Securities started coverage on BBVA Banco Frances in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded BBVA Banco Frances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 7th. Finally, Zacks Research cut BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BBVA Banco Frances presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.50.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 27.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,303 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares in the last quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 2.5% during the second quarter. Redhawk Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 52,270 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $860,000 after acquiring an additional 1,278 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 199.9% during the second quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 2,381 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,587 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 123.3% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 15,301 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $252,000 after acquiring an additional 8,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 42.0% during the first quarter. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC now owns 30,417 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $551,000 after acquiring an additional 9,000 shares in the last quarter.

BBVA Banco Frances Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $14.38 and a 200-day moving average of $17.27. The firm has a market cap of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.72 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 20th. The bank reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.13). BBVA Banco Frances had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 6.65%.The company had revenue of $524.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $727.31 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BBVA Banco Frances S.A. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BBVA Banco Frances Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 25th. Investors of record on Monday, August 18th were issued a dividend of $0.0221 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 18th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. BBVA Banco Frances’s dividend payout ratio is 20.15%.

BBVA Banco Frances Company Profile

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.