Head to Head Comparison: Banco Santander (SAN) & The Competition

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) is one of 85 publicly-traded companies in the “BANKS – FOREIGN” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Banco Santander to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings and dividends.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Banco Santander and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Banco Santander	$66.36 billion	$15.95 billion	12.75
Banco Santander Competitors	$169.98 billion	$7.26 billion	12.45

Banco Santander’s competitors have higher revenue, but lower earnings than Banco Santander. Banco Santander is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Banco Santander and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Banco Santander	1	3	5	1	2.60
Banco Santander Competitors	1358	4466	4775	235	2.36

As a group, “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies have a potential upside of 2.56%. Given Banco Santander’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Banco Santander has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Profitability

This table compares Banco Santander and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Banco Santander	18.85%	12.14%	0.73%
Banco Santander Competitors	18.33%	13.20%	1.06%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

9.2% of Banco Santander shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 21.4% of shares of all “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies are held by institutional investors. 9.5% of Banco Santander shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 5.3% of shares of all “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Banco Santander has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Banco Santander’s competitors have a beta of 0.67, indicating that their average share price is 33% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Banco Santander pays an annual dividend of $0.19 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.5%. Banco Santander pays out 18.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “BANKS – FOREIGN” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.3% and pay out 41.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Banco Santander beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, S.A. provides various financial services worldwide. The company operates through Retail Banking, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking, Wealth Management & Insurance, and PagoNxt segments. It offers demand and time deposits, mutual funds, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, loans, and various financing solutions; and project finance, debt capital markets, global transaction banking, and corporate finance services. The company also provides asset management and private banking services; and insurance products. In addition, it offers corporate and investment banking services; and digital payment solutions. Further, it offers online banking and financial services to retail, business, institutional, corporate, private banking and university customers and clients. The company was formerly known as Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and changed its name to Banco Santander, S.A. in February 2007. Banco Santander, S.A. was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.