Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) Upgraded to “Overweight” at Morgan Stanley

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) was upgraded by Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

SAN has been the subject of several other research reports. Kepler Capital Markets raised shares of Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised Banco Santander from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. DZ Bank lowered Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Banco Santander Trading Down 3.7%

Shares of NYSE SAN opened at $10.54 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $12.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.13. Banco Santander has a 52 week low of $5.54 and a 52 week high of $13.24. The stock has a market cap of $156.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.43, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.15, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a current ratio of 0.33.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 3rd. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.24 by $0.04. Banco Santander had a net margin of 18.85% and a return on equity of 12.14%. The firm had revenue of $18.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.89 billion. On average, research analysts predict that Banco Santander will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Banco Santander

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Banco Santander by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 56,109,418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $658,164,000 after buying an additional 1,719,432 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in Banco Santander by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 18,037,272 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $211,577,000 after acquiring an additional 398,787 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in Banco Santander by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 14,766,849 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $174,839,000 after acquiring an additional 237,825 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 8.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,029 shares of the bank’s stock worth $134,605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,811 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Banco Santander by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 9,400,907 shares of the bank’s stock worth $110,273,000 after purchasing an additional 419,035 shares in the last quarter. 9.19% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander, SA (NYSE: SAN) is a Spanish multinational banking group headquartered in Santander, Spain. Founded in 1857, the bank has grown from a regional institution into one of Europe’s largest banking groups, operating a diversified financial services platform that serves retail, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large corporate clients. Santander is publicly listed in Spain and maintains American Depositary Receipts on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SAN.

The group’s core activities include retail and commercial banking—offering deposit accounts, payment services, mortgages, personal and auto loans, and small business financing—alongside corporate and investment banking services for larger institutional clients.