Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Shares Sold by Quest Partners LLC

Quest Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 71.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,224 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 25,980 shares during the quarter. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp were worth $249,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 1,199.7% during the second quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 694,867 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $16,927,000 after buying an additional 641,402 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at about $8,423,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 432.5% during the second quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 192,533 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,690,000 after buying an additional 156,377 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 69.1% during the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 148,921 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,628,000 after buying an additional 60,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,240,530 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $61,033,000 after buying an additional 52,454 shares in the last quarter. 66.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com downgraded Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, DA Davidson upped their target price on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have given a hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Sandy Spring Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $27.00.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of SASR opened at $32.14 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.75 and a beta of 0.96. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $19.27 and a fifty-two week high of $32.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The business’s 50-day moving average is $29.48 and its 200-day moving average is $24.77.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.41% and a net margin of 12.31%. The firm had revenue of $184.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $99.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 14th were issued a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 14th. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.23%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.67%.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Profile

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.