Natixis Advisors LLC Grows Stake in Banco Santander, S.A. $SAN

Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) by 17.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,286,999 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 489,022 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Banco Santander were worth $34,448,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Banco Santander by 77.4% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 419,635 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,812,000 after acquiring an additional 183,051 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Banco Santander by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 71,990 shares of the bank’s stock worth $482,000 after purchasing an additional 2,566 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 271.2% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 10,276 shares of the bank’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 7,508 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth boosted its stake in shares of Banco Santander by 65.3% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 71,169 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $477,000 after purchasing an additional 28,107 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Banco Santander during the first quarter valued at about $601,000. Institutional investors own 9.19% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Banco Santander

Here are the key news stories impacting Banco Santander this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Recent operating/earnings beat supports the stock: Santander reported stronger?than?expected quarterly results in early February (EPS and revenue beats) and continues to show solid margins and ROE, which underpins longer?term valuation.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short interest jumped ~39% in February to ~58.5M shares (about 0.4% of shares outstanding) with a short?interest ratio of ~3.7 days — a meaningful rise in bearish positioning but still a small share of the float; this can add trading volatility but is not on its own a systemic threat.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary is mixed: a recent Yahoo Finance piece asks whether the pullback warrants reassessment of Santander, signaling some analysts/investors are debating risk/reward after the price move. Is It Time To Reassess Santander
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple law firms have announced securities?fraud investigations into Banco Santander (Glancy Prongay Wolke & Rotter; Pomerantz; Howard G. Smith; Frank R. Cruz; Rosen Law Firm, etc.), citing alleged materially misleading statements reported in the press — these actions increase legal, financial and reputational risk and can prompt regulatory scrutiny, potential settlements and distraction for management. Representative notices: Glancy Investigation Pomerantz Alert Howard G. Smith Frank R. Cruz AP/Pomerantz

Banco Santander Stock Up 2.5%

Shares of NYSE:SAN opened at $11.48 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.15. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.05. Banco Santander, S.A. has a 12-month low of $5.54 and a 12-month high of $13.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $170.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.37, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 0.71.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $18.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.89 billion. Banco Santander had a return on equity of 12.14% and a net margin of 18.85%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Banco Santander, S.A. will post 0.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Banco Santander Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.1473 per share. This represents a yield of 254.0%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 4th. Banco Santander’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 18.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. DZ Bank lowered Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Banco Santander from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Banco Santander from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Barclays downgraded Banco Santander from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Banco Santander presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Banco Santander Company Profile

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.