Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) Cut to Equal Weight at Stephens

Stephens lowered shares of Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note published on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $32.00 price objective on the stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Zacks Research raised shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Amerant Bancorp from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.75.

Amerant Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of AMTB opened at $29.16 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.74. Amerant Bancorp has a 52-week low of $15.62 and a 52-week 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 capitalization of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of 20.98 and a beta of 0.87.

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.14. Amerant Bancorp had a net margin of 8.76% and a return on equity of 8.30%. The firm had revenue of $183.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $98.64 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Amerant Bancorp will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date is 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%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royal Bank of Canada lifted its position in Amerant Bancorp by 149.2% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,524 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 1,511 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $78,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its position in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 11.8% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,000 after acquiring an additional 526 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp in the second quarter valued at about $129,000. Finally, Aquatic Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Amerant Bancorp during the third quarter worth about $143,000. Institutional investors own 42.11% of the company’s stock.

About Amerant Bancorp

Amerant Bancorp is the bank holding company and parent of Amerant Bank, a community-oriented financial institution headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. Amerant Bank delivers a comprehensive range of deposit and lending products to both retail and commercial clients, including checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, consumer mortgages, and business lines of credit. In addition, the company offers specialized services such as treasury management, international trade finance, foreign exchange, and asset-based lending to support the complex needs of corporate and high-net-worth customers.

Tracing its roots to the early 1980s, Amerant has grown through a combination of strategic acquisitions and organic expansion.