American Century Companies Inc. Buys 6,815 Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 893,547 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,815 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 1.98% of Sandy Spring Bancorp worth $30,121,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in SASR. Vestcor Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Family Firm Inc. acquired a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at $204,000. Stifel Financial Corp acquired a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the third quarter valued at $217,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS bought a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $228,000. Finally, Heritage Investors Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 4th quarter worth about $281,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research note on Monday, March 24th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Trading Down 3.1 %

Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp stock opened at $27.60 on Friday. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.52 and a 1 year high of $39.55. The company has a market capitalization of $1.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.33 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $31.76 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02.

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

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 19th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th were issued a dividend of $0.34 per share. This represents a $1.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 12th. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.