Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Acquires 5,574 Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 2.4% during the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 234,860 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,574 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned about 0.52% of Sandy Spring Bancorp worth $5,444,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in SASR. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,628,937 shares of the bank’s stock worth $56,338,000 after purchasing an additional 12,576 shares during the period. Denali Advisors LLC raised its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 11.1% in the 4th quarter. Denali Advisors LLC now owns 142,800 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,890,000 after acquiring an additional 14,300 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC bought a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $230,000. Arizona State Retirement System raised its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 12,542 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $342,000 after acquiring an additional 414 shares during the period. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $218,000. 66.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Price Performance

SASR stock traded up $0.43 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $31.35. 473,049 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 345,297. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The company has a market capitalization of $1.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.37 and a beta of 0.97. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $19.27 and a 52-week high of $31.83. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $24.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.33.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $184.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $99.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 6.44% and a net margin of 12.31%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on SASR shares. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.00.

About Sandy Spring Bancorp

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Sandy Spring Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, mortgage, private banking, and trust services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It offers financial products and services, including various loan and deposit products.