Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Holdings Raised by Wedge Capital Management L L P NC

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 69.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 148,921 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,850 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC owned about 0.33% of Sandy Spring Bancorp worth $3,628,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SASR. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 313,534 shares of the bank’s stock worth $8,541,000 after purchasing an additional 43,987 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,240,530 shares of the bank’s stock worth $61,033,000 after acquiring an additional 52,454 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 580,628 shares of the bank’s stock worth $15,816,000 after acquiring an additional 40,374 shares during the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 5.7% in the first quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 349,036 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $8,091,000 after acquiring an additional 18,887 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $980,000. 66.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. DA Davidson boosted their target price on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from $23.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have issued a hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $27.00.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp stock traded up $0.58 on Thursday, hitting $28.53. The company had a trading volume of 188,567 shares, compared to its average volume of 300,307. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.27 and a 52 week high of $31.83. 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 cap of $1.29 billion, a PE ratio of 13.99 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.63.

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

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 21st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 14th will be paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 14th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.77%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.67%.

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.