Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN)

Banco Santander, S.A. (NYSE:SAN – Get Rating) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock investors acquired 3,125 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 60% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,948 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Banco Santander

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Banco Santander in the second quarter worth about $29,000. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new position in Banco Santander in the first quarter worth about $35,000. Eqis Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Banco Santander in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Brookstone Capital Management bought a new position in Banco Santander in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Banco Santander during the first quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Banco Santander Stock Performance

NYSE:SAN opened at $3.35 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $56.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.78 and a beta of 1.12. Banco Santander has a one year low of $2.26 and a one year high of $4.01. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.00 and a 200 day simple moving average of $2.68.

Banco Santander (NYSE:SAN – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 26th. The bank reported $0.14 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.12 by $0.02. Banco Santander had a return on equity of 9.67% and a net margin of 19.08%. The business had revenue of $13.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.90 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Banco Santander will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on SAN. Credit Suisse Group increased their target price on Banco Santander from €4.00 ($4.35) to €4.10 ($4.46) in a research report on Monday, October 10th. Citigroup upgraded Banco Santander from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from €3.20 ($3.48) to €3.50 ($3.80) in a report on Tuesday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Banco Santander from €3.50 ($3.80) to €3.60 ($3.91) in a report on Wednesday, December 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Banco Santander from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $3.94.

Banco Santander Company Profile

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Banco Santander, SA provides various retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large companies worldwide. It offers demand and time deposits, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, syndicated corporate loans, structured financing, cash management, export and agency finance, trade and working capital solutions, and corporate finance; and insurance products.