Chicago Capital Management LLC Takes $843,000 Position in Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR)

Chicago Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 25,000 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $843,000. Chicago Capital Management LLC owned 0.06% of Sandy Spring Bancorp at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of SASR. Vestcor Inc bought a new stake in Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Family Firm Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Stifel Financial Corp purchased a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the third quarter worth $217,000. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS purchased a new position in Sandy Spring Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $228,000. Finally, Associated Banc Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Sandy Spring Bancorp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $249,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, StockNews.com started coverage on Sandy Spring Bancorp in a research note on Monday. They issued a “sell” rating on the stock.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Stock Down 1.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ SASR opened at $29.07 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.60 and a beta of 0.96. Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. has a one year low of $19.52 and a one year high of $39.55. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $32.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.41. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The bank reported $0.47 earnings per share 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%. As a group, analysts expect that Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. will post 2.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sandy Spring Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 12th. This represents a $1.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.68%. 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.