BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Stock Falls 5.9% – Here’s What Happened

BBVA Banco Frances S.A. (NYSE:BBAR) traded down 5.9% on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $12.10 and last traded at $12.0860. 230,847 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 66% from the average daily volume of 680,094 shares. The stock had previously closed at $12.85.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen upgraded BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 6th. UBS Group increased their price target on BBVA Banco Frances from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, July 10th. Citigroup cut BBVA Banco Frances from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, September 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.00.

BBVA Banco Frances Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.24 and a beta of 0.93. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.10.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, August 14th. The bank reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $716.56 million during the quarter. BBVA Banco Frances had a net margin of 4.16% and a return on equity of 7.56%. On average, analysts forecast that BBVA Banco Frances S.A. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BBAR. Fourth Sail Capital LP raised its stake in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 6.7% in the fourth quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP now owns 2,847,061 shares of the bank’s stock worth $51,446,000 after purchasing an additional 177,799 shares during the last quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC bought a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances during the fourth quarter worth $4,042,000. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. bought a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances during the fourth quarter worth $266,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in BBVA Banco Frances in the 2nd quarter valued at $311,000. Finally, XP Advisory US Inc. bought a new position in BBVA Banco Frances during the 2nd quarter valued at $63,000.

About BBVA Banco Frances

BBVA Banco Francés, now known as Banco BBVA Argentina SA, is an Argentine financial institution and a subsidiary of the global BBVA Group. The bank provides banking and financial services to individuals, businesses, corporations and institutional clients throughout Argentina.

Its offerings include checking and savings accounts, consumer and commercial lending, mortgages, credit and debit cards, investment products, foreign-exchange services, payments and cash-management solutions. Through its corporate and investment banking operations, the bank also serves large companies and institutions with financing, transaction banking and related advisory services.

The institution traces its origins to Banco Francés del Río de la Plata, founded in Argentina in 1886.