Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eight analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $65.50.

Several research firms recently commented on GGAL. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen downgraded Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on Grupo Financiero Galicia from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Price Performance

NASDAQ GGAL opened at $42.70 on Wednesday. Grupo Financiero Galicia has a 52 week low of $25.89 and a 52 week high of $66.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.30 billion, a PE ratio of 21.57 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $47.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.07.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Saturday, February 14th. The bank reported ($0.36) EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $666.89 million during the quarter. Grupo Financiero Galicia had a net margin of 7.13% and a return on equity of 18.96%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Grupo Financiero Galicia will post 7.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a monthly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 6th. Investors of record on Monday, March 30th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. This is a positive change from Grupo Financiero Galicia’s previous monthly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 30th. Grupo Financiero Galicia’s dividend payout ratio is currently 93.43%.

Institutional Trading of Grupo Financiero Galicia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GGAL. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia in the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 71.2% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 186,852 shares of the bank’s stock worth $9,984,000 after acquiring an additional 77,740 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Global Management LLC acquired a new stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia during the 4th quarter worth $9,170,000. XTX Topco Ltd lifted its position in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 36.0% in the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 16,288 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $879,000 after acquiring an additional 4,312 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PointState Capital LP lifted its position in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 170.6% in the fourth quarter. PointState Capital LP now owns 1,592,990 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $85,926,000 after acquiring an additional 1,004,371 shares during the last quarter.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Company Profile

Grupo Financiero Galicia is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As one of the country’s largest private-sector financial institutions, the company provides a comprehensive suite of banking, insurance and investment products to individual, small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and corporate clients. Its operations span retail and commercial banking, asset management, leasing, factoring and pension fund administration.

The core banking segment offers deposit and lending services, credit and debit cards, payment solutions and digital banking platforms.