Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) Stock Price Up 7.9% – Time to Buy?

Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. (NASDAQ:GGAL) shares rose 7.9% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $53.67 and last traded at $53.5340. Approximately 870,049 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 28% from the average daily volume of 1,201,038 shares. The stock had previously closed at $49.62.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GGAL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Zacks Research raised shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from $75.00 to $72.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Grupo Financiero Galicia presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.00.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Stock Up 10.0%

The company has a market cap of $8.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.00, a PEG ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $45.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $48.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Grupo Financiero Galicia (NASDAQ:GGAL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 26th. The bank reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.70 billion. Grupo Financiero Galicia had a return on equity of 18.96% and a net margin of 7.13%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Grupo Financiero Galicia S.A. will post 3.69 EPS for the current year.

Grupo Financiero Galicia Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a monthly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, May 4th were given a dividend of $0.6229 per share. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, May 4th. Grupo Financiero Galicia’s dividend payout ratio is 214.10%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Grupo Financiero Galicia

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 11,824 shares of the bank’s stock worth $596,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 54,525 shares of the bank’s stock worth $2,748,000 after purchasing an additional 362 shares in the last quarter. Deltec Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Deltec Asset Management LLC now owns 25,900 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 131.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 938 shares of the bank’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Grupo Financiero Galicia by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 65,810 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,814,000 after acquiring an additional 677 shares during the last quarter.

About Grupo Financiero Galicia

Grupo Financiero Galicia is a diversified financial services holding company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As one of the country’s largest private-sector financial institutions, the company provides a comprehensive suite of banking, insurance and investment products to individual, small-to-medium enterprise (SME) and corporate clients. Its operations span retail and commercial banking, asset management, leasing, factoring and pension fund administration.

The core banking segment offers deposit and lending services, credit and debit cards, payment solutions and digital banking platforms.