BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Upgraded to “Buy” at Citigroup

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) was upgraded by equities researchers at Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Monday,Finviz reports.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on BBAR. Itau BBA Securities upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 27th. Zacks Research lowered shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, September 8th. HSBC upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of BBVA Banco Frances to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BBVA Banco Frances presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.67.

BBVA Banco Frances Stock Up 9.2%

BBAR stock opened at $16.57 on Monday. BBVA Banco Frances has a 12 month low of $7.76 and a 12 month high of $25.01. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of 12.36 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BBAR. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in BBVA Banco Frances by 27.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,303 shares of the bank’s stock worth $96,000 after purchasing an additional 1,132 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the 1st quarter valued at $224,000. XTX Topco Ltd raised its stake in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 97.3% in the 1st quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 32,603 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $591,000 after acquiring an additional 16,082 shares during the period. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft purchased a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances in the 1st quarter valued at $312,000. Finally, Gemsstock Ltd. raised its stake in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 62.5% in the 1st quarter. Gemsstock Ltd. now owns 241,274 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $4,372,000 after acquiring an additional 92,758 shares during the period.

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.