Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) Now Covered by Analysts at StockNews.com

Analysts at StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR - Get Free Report) in a report issued on Saturday. The brokerage set a "sell" rating on the bank's stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their target price on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Sandy Spring Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $28.25.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Performance

Sandy Spring Bancorp stock traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $37.63. The company's stock had a trading volume of 229,387 shares, compared to its average volume of 351,419. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 1-year low of $19.52 and a 1-year high of $39.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $33.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.43. The company has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.81 and a beta of 0.94.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.40 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $101.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.71% and a net margin of 11.54%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.62 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 69.1% during the 2nd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 148,921 shares of the bank's stock valued at $3,628,000 after acquiring an additional 60,850 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 432.5% during the 2nd quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 192,533 shares of the bank's stock valued at $4,690,000 after acquiring an additional 156,377 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 473,241 shares of the bank's stock valued at $11,528,000 after acquiring an additional 25,546 shares during the period. Elizabeth Park Capital Advisors Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,778,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1,199.7% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 694,867 shares of the bank's stock valued at $16,927,000 after acquiring an additional 641,402 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.90% of the company's stock.

About Sandy Spring Bancorp

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.