Banco Santander SA (SAN) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $185.08B
• Dividend Yield: 1.85%
• Average Volume (3M): 4.99M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 12.1
• Beta (1Y): 0.93
• Revenue Growth: -15.34%
• EPS Growth: 16.71%
• Country: US
• Employees: 206,736
• Sector: Financial
• Sector Strength: 70
• Industry: Banks - Diversified
• EPS (TTM): 0.28
• Shares Outstanding: 14,689,319,000
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 9,324,968
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 4,994,420
• PEG Ratio: 0.29
• Price to Book (P/B): 0.69
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.53
• P/FCF Ratio: -2.09
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 3.32
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 8.11
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 12.86
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 27.80
• 1Y Price Target: N/A
• Price Target Upside: N/A
• Rating Consensus: N/A
• Number of Analyst Covering: 0
• EPS Forecast (FY): 1.16
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $72.30B

• Rating: 72 Outperform
• Price Target: $14.50 ▲(13.19% Upside)

Banco Santander SA's overall score reflects strong earnings performance and positive sentiment from the latest earnings call, offset by high leverage and negative cash flow. The stock's valuation is reasonable, and technical indicators suggest moderate momentum.

Positive Factors

Scale & Customer Base Growth

Strong, broad customer growth and record profit signal durable revenue scale and cross-sell capacity. A 178M customer base increases low-cost deposits, fee opportunities, and revenue diversification across retail, payments, and wealth, supporting sustained top-line resilience.

Improved Return and Capital Position

Higher RoTE and a stronger capital ratio indicate more efficient use of equity and greater loss-absorbing capacity. This supports continued investment, dividend/buyback capacity and resilience through credit cycles, reducing structural funding and regulatory risk over months.

Shift to Fee Income & Efficiency Gains

Rising fee and payments revenues combined with efficiency improvements reflect a structural mix shift to higher-margin, less cyclical businesses and successful cost programs. This enhances margin sustainability and improves operating leverage over the medium term.

Negative Factors

High Financial Leverage

A debt-to-equity ratio near 3.3 implies elevated leverage that can amplify losses and limit strategic flexibility. In adverse credit or rate environments, high leverage raises funding and regulatory pressures, constraining capital allocation and growth options over months.

Weak Cash Flow Generation

A large swing to negative operating cash flow signals difficulty converting reported earnings into liquid cash. This strains liquidity, complicates predictable shareholder returns, and increases reliance on external funding or asset sales, affecting stability over the medium term.

Elevated Credit Costs in Key Markets

Persistently high costs of risk in Brazil and Argentina reflect structural macro and interest-rate challenges that depress margins and consume capital. These market-specific credit pressures can persist for quarters, limiting profit conversion and increasing provisioning volatility.

Banco Santander SA Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Banco Santander, S.A. provides various retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises, and large companies worldwide. It offers demand and time deposits, and current and savings accounts; mortgages, consumer finance, syndicated corporate loans, structured financing, cash management, export and agency finance, trade and working capital solutions, and corporate finance; and insurance products. The company also provides cash, asset, and wealth management; and private banking services. In addition, it is involved in the corporate banking; treasury, risk hedging, foreign trade, confirming, custody, and investment banking activities. The company operates through a network of 9,879 branches. The company was formerly known as Banco Santander Central Hispano S.A. and changed its name to Banco Santander, S.A. in June 2007. Banco Santander, S.A. was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Madrid, Spain.

How the Company Makes Money

Banco Santander generates revenue through multiple key streams. The primary source is net interest income, which comes from the difference between the interest earned on loans and the interest paid on deposits. The bank also earns significant income from fees and commissions related to its retail and commercial banking services, including account maintenance fees, transaction fees, and advisory services. Additionally, Santander's investment banking division contributes to its revenue through underwriting, trading, and asset management services. The bank has established partnerships with various fintech companies to enhance its service offerings and reach new customer segments, further diversifying its revenue sources. Economic conditions, interest rate fluctuations, and regulatory changes can all impact Santander's earnings, making these factors critical to its financial performance.

Banco Santander SA Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Banco Santander SA shows strong revenue growth and improved profitability, but high leverage and negative cash flow are significant risks. The balance sheet indicates efficient equity management, though high debt levels are concerning.

Income Statement

Banco Santander SA has demonstrated strong revenue growth, with a significant increase from $44.76B in 2023 to $63.49B in 2024. The net profit margin improved from 24.73% to 19.80%, reflecting enhanced profitability. However, the absence of EBIT and EBITDA data for 2024 limits a full assessment of operating efficiency.

Balance Sheet

The company's debt-to-equity ratio is approximately 3.30, indicating a high level of leverage. However, the equity ratio remains stable at around 5.37%, and the ROE has increased to 12.75%, suggesting efficient use of equity capital. The high leverage poses a risk, but equity stability and return on equity are strong points.

Cash Flow

Operating cash flow turned negative at -$24.16B in 2024 from $5.02B in 2023, raising concerns about cash flow generation. Free cash flow has also decreased significantly. The negative free cash flow to net income ratio suggests challenges in converting income into cash.

Breakdown	TTM	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021	Dec 2020
Income Statement
Total Revenue	75.90B	129.91B	121.87B	87.03B	61.50B	60.50B
Gross Profit	47.84B	51.20B	46.97B	43.36B	41.02B	34.39B
EBITDA	22.14B	22.32B	19.64B	18.23B	17.30B	734.00M
Net Income	13.60B	12.57B	11.08B	9.61B	8.12B	-8.77B
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	1.84T	1.84T	1.80T	1.73T	1.60T	1.51T
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	343.46B	237.41B	268.41B	223.07B	264.01B	269.54B
Total Debt	316.62B	483.38B	310.98B	282.96B	334.39B	322.17B
Total Liabilities	1.73T	1.73T	1.69T	1.64T	1.50T	1.42T
Stockholders Equity	101.08B	98.60B	95.42B	89.10B	86.93B	81.48B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	8.39B	-32.65B	-8.63B	16.87B	45.29B	57.63B
Operating Cash Flow	15.15B	-24.16B	5.01B	27.71B	56.69B	66.15B
Investing Cash Flow	-96.00M	-3.71B	-5.37B	-3.90B	-3.71B	-7.22B
Financing Cash Flow	-14.43B	-5.51B	-2.06B	-9.96B	-1.32B	-1.91B

Banco Santander SA Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Neutral
• Last Price: 12.81
• 50DMA: Positive
• 100DMA: Positive
• 200DMA: Positive
• MACD: Positive
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For SAN, the sentiment is Neutral. The current price of 12.81 is above the 20-day moving average (MA) of 12.38, above the 50-day MA of 11.78, and above the 200-day MA of 9.65, indicating a neutral trend. The MACD of 0.22 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 49.89 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 37.19 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Neutral sentiment for SAN.

Banco Santander SA Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
HSBC	78 Outperform	$304.16B	18.87	8.66%	4.14%	-9.54%	-22.46%
BCS	77 Outperform	$90.30B	12.15	9.44%	1.71%	17.50%	49.25%
BBVA	76 Outperform	$147.07B	12.95	18.00%	3.27%	7.52%	10.40%
SAN	72 Outperform	$185.08B	12.10	13.08%	1.85%	-15.34%	16.71%
ING	71 Outperform	$87.00B	12.87	12.79%	4.14%	2.20%	-0.17%
Sector *	68 Neutral	$18.00B	11.42	9.92%	3.81%	9.73%	1.22%
C	66 Neutral	$210.11B	16.79	6.72%	1.94%	-0.62%	105.57%

Banco Santander SA Corporate Events

Banco Santander Advances Share Buyback Program in November 2025

On November 27, 2025, Banco Santander announced the progress of its share buyback program, which was initially communicated on July 30, 2025. As of November 26, 2025, the bank has repurchased shares worth approximately 1.35 billion Euros, accounting for 79.3% of the program’s maximum investment. This buyback represents about 15.1% of its outstanding shares since 2021, indicating a strategic move to enhance shareholder value and optimize capital structure.

The most recent analyst rating on (SAN) stock is a Buy with a $11.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Banco Santander SA stock, see the SAN Stock Forecast page.