Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) Short Interest Up 21.6% in November

Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,130,000 shares, a growth of 21.6% from the October 31st total of 929,100 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 467,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.4 days. Currently, 2.6% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Sandy Spring Bancorp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 59.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,561 shares of the bank’s stock worth $135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,073 shares during the last quarter. Sapient Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in the second quarter worth about $205,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 2.9% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 25,456 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 723 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp by 69.1% in the 2nd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 148,921 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,628,000 after buying an additional 60,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp by 36.2% during the second quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 21,050 shares of the bank’s stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 5,600 shares in the last quarter. 66.90% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research report on Sunday, November 24th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and four have assigned a hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.25.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp stock traded up $0.17 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.68. 144,590 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 326,921. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50, a current ratio of 1.02 and a quick ratio of 1.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.83 and a beta of 0.94. Sandy Spring Bancorp has a 12-month low of $19.52 and a 12-month high of $39.55.

Sandy Spring Bancorp (NASDAQ:SASR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, October 21st. The bank reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $189.81 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $101.60 million. Sandy Spring Bancorp had a return on equity of 5.71% and a net margin of 11.54%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.62 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Sandy Spring Bancorp will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were paid a $0.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. Sandy Spring Bancorp’s payout ratio is 71.58%.

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.