BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Upgraded by HSBC to Buy Rating

HSBC upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $17.00 target price on the bank’s stock, down from their previous target price of $21.00.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on BBAR. Citigroup cut shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, September 11th. Zacks Research lowered BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $20.67.

BBVA Banco Frances Stock Performance

Shares of BBAR stock opened at $8.31 on Wednesday. BBVA Banco Frances has a 12 month low of $7.76 and a 12 month high of $25.01. The stock has a market cap of $1.70 billion, a PE ratio of 6.20 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $12.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.30.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 20th. The bank reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.13). BBVA Banco Frances had a net margin of 6.65% and a return on equity of 10.24%. The business had revenue of $524.41 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $727.31 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BBVA Banco Frances Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a monthly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 19th were paid a $0.0335 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 19th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.8%. BBVA Banco Frances’s payout ratio is presently 29.85%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fourth Sail Capital LP purchased a new position in BBVA Banco Frances in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,399,000. PointState Capital LP raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 36.1% in the 1st quarter. PointState Capital LP now owns 3,346,539 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,639,000 after buying an additional 888,235 shares during the last quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 30.8% in the 1st quarter. Samlyn Capital LLC now owns 1,852,539 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,568,000 after buying an additional 435,692 shares during the last quarter. OCONNOR A Distinct Business Unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC purchased a new position in BBVA Banco Frances in the 2nd quarter worth about $3,168,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in BBVA Banco Frances by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,021,521 shares of the bank’s stock worth $33,274,000 after buying an additional 180,137 shares during the last quarter.

About BBVA Banco Frances

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.