BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Separately, Itau BBA Securities began coverage on BBVA Banco Frances in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $18.00 target price on the stock.

BBVA Banco Frances Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BBAR opened at $16.66 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.64. The company has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a PE ratio of 9.74 and a beta of 1.27. BBVA Banco Frances has a 12-month low of $7.05 and a 12-month high of $25.01.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 21st. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.02. BBVA Banco Frances had a return on equity of 13.53% and a net margin of 8.31%. The business had revenue of $667.94 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $751.69 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BBAR. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 38.0% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,488 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Amundi bought a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the fourth quarter valued at $396,000. William Blair Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the fourth quarter valued at $19,446,000. HUB Investment Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 42.6% in the fourth quarter. HUB Investment Partners LLC now owns 15,318 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $292,000 after buying an additional 4,574 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gemsstock Ltd. bought a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the fourth quarter valued at $2,831,000.

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.