Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) Stock Sees Heavy Call Option Buying

Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors bought 3,003 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 63% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,842 call options.

Institutional Trading of Grupo Financiero Galicia

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Carrhae Capital LLP bought a new stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $68,052,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. purchased a new stake in Grupo Financiero Galicia during the third quarter valued at $47,235,000. RWC Asset Management LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 4.3% in the 3rd quarter. RWC Asset Management LLP now owns 890,348 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,157,000 after acquiring an additional 36,903 shares during the last quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC raised its holdings in Grupo Financiero Galicia by 52.2% during the 2nd quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 517,540 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $25,893,000 after buying an additional 177,574 shares during the period. Finally, Moerus Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia during the 1st quarter worth about $8,179,000.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GGAL has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group dropped their target price on Grupo Financiero Galicia from $60.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Friday, August 14th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities downgraded shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.00.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Stock Down 4.2%

NASDAQ:GGAL opened at $32.30 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $5.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.29. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.69. Grupo Financiero Galicia has a twelve month low of $32.02 and a twelve month high of $62.51.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 25th. The bank reported $1.14 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $1.87 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. On average, analysts expect that Grupo Financiero Galicia will post 3.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 5th. Investors of record on Monday, September 28th were given a dividend of $0.0479 per share. This represents a $0.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. This is a drop from Grupo Financiero Galicia’s previous monthly dividend of $0.0531. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 28th. Grupo Financiero Galicia’s payout ratio is 23.27%.

About Grupo Financiero Galicia

Grupo Financiero Galicia SA is an Argentine financial services holding company whose principal business is conducted through Banco de Galicia y Buenos Aires SAU., commonly known as Galicia. The group serves individuals, businesses, agricultural customers and public-sector entities across Argentina.

Through its banking operations, Galicia offers deposit accounts, consumer and commercial loans, credit and debit cards, payment services, cash management, foreign trade financing, investment products and digital banking services.