With the end of October the date of payment of the dividend of Banco Santander approaches, one of the most anticipated within the Ibex 35, since the window to move on to the distribution of the profits of the entity It will only close on October 30.
He Banco Santander will distribute 0.1 euros gross per share. This dividend, in cash account charged to the results of the current year, implies an increase by the entity of 23% compared to the same payment made the previous year and represents almost 2.2% of profitability at current prices .
This is not the only way for Santander shareholders to participate in the entity’s profits. Half of the profit allocated by the entity in the first quarter of 2025 will be distributed via the aforementioned dividend while the other half will be paid via an advanced share buyback program in September. In fact, the entity I would have already bought more than 40% of them shares considered by the company at the end of this week at an average price of 4.49 euros per share, which would amount to 630 million euros. This share buyback as well as the dividend for the first half will allow Banco Santander to distribute 3,050 million euros. In the absence of closure of the third quarter of the year, it is not expected that further announcements will be made by the entity regarding dividends before the close of the 2024 financial year and its full presentation during the first months of next year.
The end of the third quarter of 2024 will be decisive for the European financial sector. With monetary policy in the Eurozone tending to reduce benchmark interest rates, bank results will begin to show a lower funding cost environment. Nuria Álvarez, analyst at Renta 4, defends the listing of Spanish entities They won’t bring much news in their accounts from July to September in terms of credit volumes for the summer period. “But the third quarter will be important because it should mark the start of a downward trend in interest margins,” commented the expert.
For now, Banco Santander is not the most optimistic entity in the Ibex 35 of the year, given that its stock progresses by 20% compared to 48% for CaixaBank or 67% for Banco Sabadell, its dividend yield is therefore not below average due to its performance on the stock market. At the end of the week, Banco Santander’s annual dividend yield is close to 4% compared to 4.6% for Unicaja, 6% for Banco Sabadell or 6.5% for Bankinter. In this way, it is CaixaBank and BBVA that dominate the performance of the distributed profit compared to the current trading price, exceeding 7%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The next payment of an Ibex 35 entity would not arrive until the second week of November, from CaixaBank, although it has not yet been confirmed.
The market consensus collected by FactSet considers that it is time to take a position on Banco Santander, an entity that has its best buy recommendation since May 2023. The average price target of analysis firms is at 5.65 euros which implies a journey in advance of 22%.
