BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) Upgraded to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Saturday.

Separately, Itau BBA Securities started coverage on shares of BBVA Banco Frances in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $18.00 price target on the stock.

BBVA Banco Frances Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BBAR opened at $16.66 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $19.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.64. The company has a quick ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. BBVA Banco Frances has a 12-month low of $7.05 and a 12-month high of $25.01. The company has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.74 and a beta of 1.27.

BBVA Banco Frances (NYSE:BBAR) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 21st. The bank reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.02. BBVA Banco Frances had a net margin of 8.31% and a return on equity of 13.53%. The company had revenue of $667.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $751.69 billion. Equities analysts expect that BBVA Banco Frances will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BBVA Banco Frances

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 2,203.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 96,090 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,741,000 after acquiring an additional 91,919 shares in the last quarter. Amundi purchased a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances during the 4th quarter valued at $396,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 93.3% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 1,733,785 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $33,046,000 after acquiring an additional 836,688 shares in the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of BBVA Banco Frances during the 4th quarter valued at $19,446,000. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of BBVA Banco Frances by 42.6% during the 4th quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 61,600 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,174,000 after acquiring an additional 18,400 shares in the last quarter.

About BBVA Banco Frances

Banco BBVA Argentina SA provides various banking products and services to individuals and companies in Argentina. The company provides retail banking products and services, such as checking and savings accounts, time deposits, credit cards financing, consumer and pledge loans, mortgages, insurance, and investment products to individuals; and small and medium-sized companies products and services, including financing products, factoring, checking accounts, time deposits, transactional and payroll services, insurance, and investment products to private-sector companies.