Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC)’s share price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $29.98, but opened at $31.34. Banco Santander Chile shares last traded at $31.3930, with a volume of 15,266 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley set a $38.00 price target on shares of Banco Santander Chile in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Bank of America raised Banco Santander Chile from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Banco Santander Chile from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Erste Group Bank raised Banco Santander Chile to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Banco Santander Chile from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, May 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.00.

Banco Santander Chile Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.26. The company has a market capitalization of $15.26 billion, a PE ratio of 13.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.52. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $32.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.61.

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) last released its earnings results on Monday, April 13th. The bank reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $791.52 million for the quarter. Banco Santander Chile had a return on equity of 21.00% and a net margin of 24.95%. On average, equities analysts predict that Banco Santander Chile will post 2.85 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its position in Banco Santander Chile by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,113,470 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $82,507,000 after buying an additional 17,119 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,599,117 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $49,749,000 after acquiring an additional 5,660 shares in the last quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd raised its stake in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. USS Investment Management Ltd now owns 1,561,544 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,603,000 after acquiring an additional 488,676 shares in the last quarter. INCA Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 18.8% in the first quarter. INCA Investments LLC now owns 1,263,892 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $42,214,000 after purchasing an additional 199,618 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Banco Santander Chile by 9.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 643,160 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $21,461,000 after purchasing an additional 57,400 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 6.42% of the company’s stock.

Banco Santander Chile Company Profile

Banco Santander Chile (NYSE:BSAC) is one of the leading financial institutions in Chile and a key component of the global Santander Group. The bank offers a comprehensive range of banking and financial services, including retail and commercial lending, deposit accounts, credit cards, wealth management, insurance products and corporate banking solutions. Headquartered in Santiago, it operates an extensive network of branches, ATMs and digital platforms to serve individual customers, small and medium-sized enterprises and large corporations across the country.

Originally founded as Banco de Santiago in the late 1970s, the institution became part of the Santander Group following the privatization wave in Chile during the late 1980s.