Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) Stock Rating Cut to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research downgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Zacks reports.

AMTB has been the topic of several other reports. Weiss Ratings raised Amerant Bancorp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Friday, September 18th. Stephens lowered Amerant Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Amerant Bancorp from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.75.

Amerant Bancorp Price Performance

NYSE:AMTB opened at $29.61 on Thursday. Amerant Bancorp has a one year low of $15.62 and a one year high of $30.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market cap of $1.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.30 and a beta of 0.83. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $28.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.22.

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $183.31 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $98.64 million. Amerant Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.30% and a net margin of 8.76%. Research analysts expect that Amerant Bancorp will post 2.2 EPS for the current year.

Amerant Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Amerant Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.90%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amerant Bancorp

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. North Reef Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Amerant Bancorp in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,577,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 10.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,388,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,611,000 after buying an additional 133,050 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,214,000. Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 25.2% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 198,326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,371,000 after buying an additional 39,971 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Persistent Asset Partners Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $704,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.11% of the company’s stock.

About Amerant Bancorp

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE: AMTB) is a bank holding company headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. Its principal subsidiary, Amerant Bank, provides banking and financial services to individuals, families, businesses and commercial clients.

Amerant Bank’s offerings include checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer and commercial lending, residential mortgages, home equity products, credit cards, treasury management and wealth management services. The bank also provides digital banking tools and services for business and personal customers.

The company traces its roots to 1979 and operated for many years under the Mercantil Commercebank and Mercantil Bank names before adopting the Amerant brand.