Banco Santander, S.A. $SAN Shares Acquired by West Family Investments Inc.

West Family Investments Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN) by 119.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 66,897 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,396 shares during the period. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Banco Santander were worth $923,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in SAN. Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Banco Santander by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 56,109,418 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $658,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,719,432 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Banco Santander by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 18,037,272 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $211,577,000 after purchasing an additional 398,787 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 237,825 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Banco Santander by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,029 shares of the bank’s stock worth $134,605,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,811 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Banco Santander by 118.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 11,413,194 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $128,741,000 after buying an additional 6,198,828 shares during the last quarter. 9.19% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Banco Santander Stock Performance

Banco Santander stock traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $14.86. 6,386,366 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,937,773. The firm has a market cap of $218.21 billion, a PE ratio of 12.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $12.86. Banco Santander, S.A. has a twelve month low of $9.62 and a twelve month high of $15.05.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The bank reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.02). Banco Santander had a return on equity of 12.43% and a net margin of 26.94%.The company had revenue of $17.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.90 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Banco Santander, S.A. will post 1.25 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SAN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded Banco Santander from a “buy (a-)” rating to a “buy (b+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Santander reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Banco Santander in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Banco Santander from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Banco Santander has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy”.

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.