Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Purchases Shares of 6,750 Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 6,750 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vestcor Inc bought a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $204,000. Stifel Financial Corp bought a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $217,000. Heritage Investors Management Corp acquired a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $281,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the third quarter worth about $314,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com began coverage on Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research report on Monday. They issued a “sell” rating for the company.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of SASR opened at $28.49 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.31 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.02. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $19.52 and a 52 week high of $39.55. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.34.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.01). Sandy Spring Bancorp had a net margin of 2.65% and a return on equity of 5.31%. On average, analysts forecast that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th were given a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.77%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, February 12th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s payout ratio is 302.22%.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Profile

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.