StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR)

Equities research analysts at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) in a report released on Saturday. The firm set a “sell” rating on the bank’s stock.

SASR has been the topic of several other research reports. DA Davidson increased their target price on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Sandy Spring Bancorp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.25.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of SASR opened at $37.63 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.81 and a beta of 0.94. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $19.52 and a fifty-two week high of $39.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. The business has a 50-day moving average of $33.09 and a 200 day moving average of $28.54.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.46 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $189.81 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $101.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a net margin of 11.54% and a return on equity of 5.71%. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the third quarter worth about $29,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at about $98,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $105,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the second quarter worth about $117,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the first quarter worth approximately $122,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Company Profile

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Sandy Spring Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, mortgage, private banking, and trust services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers financial products and services, including various loan and deposit products.