BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Upgraded at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on BBAR. Itau BBA Securities upgraded BBVA Banco Frances from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded BBVA Banco Frances to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Zacks Research cut BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, September 8th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of BBVA Banco Frances in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised BBVA Banco Frances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.67.

BBVA Banco Frances Price Performance

Shares of BBAR opened at $17.09 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $3.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.75 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $10.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. BBVA Banco Frances has a 12 month low of $7.76 and a 12 month high of $25.01.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 20th. The bank reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $524.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $727.31 billion. BBVA Banco Frances had a return on equity of 10.24% and a net margin of 6.65%. On average, research analysts forecast that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

BBVA Banco Frances Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 27th. Investors of record on Monday, October 20th were given a dividend of $0.0311 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, October 20th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. BBVA Banco Frances’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.64%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BBAR. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 199.9% during the 2nd quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. now owns 2,381 shares of the bank’s stock worth $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,587 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 27.1% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,303 shares of the bank’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Fox Run Management L.L.C. bought a new position in BBVA Banco Frances during the 1st quarter worth $211,000. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in BBVA Banco Frances during the 1st quarter worth $224,000. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in BBVA Banco Frances during the 3rd quarter worth $108,000.

BBVA Banco Frances Company Profile

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.