Maltese Capital Management LLC Decreases Position in Ameris Bancorp $ABCB

Maltese Capital Management LLC lessened its holdings in Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 121,500 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 7,500 shares during the quarter. Ameris Bancorp accounts for 1.6% of Maltese Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Maltese Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Ameris Bancorp were worth $9,024,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,199,365 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $238,250,000 after acquiring an additional 12,475 shares during the period. North Reef Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 4.8% in the third quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 1,981,061 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $145,232,000 after acquiring an additional 91,043 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 31.3% in the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 1,741,214 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $129,320,000 after acquiring an additional 414,920 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 3.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,258,436 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $92,256,000 after acquiring an additional 39,478 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen LLC increased its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 1,083,272 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $80,455,000 after acquiring an additional 14,735 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.60% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have issued reports on ABCB. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $92.00 price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Stephens boosted their price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $87.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $85.00 to $89.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, DA Davidson boosted their price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $94.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $90.17.

Ameris Bancorp Trading Down 1.6%

Shares of ABCB opened at $87.49 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $84.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $80.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.79 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. Ameris Bancorp has a 1-year low of $59.54 and a 1-year high of $90.00.

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The bank reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $314.36 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $309.58 million. Ameris Bancorp had a net margin of 21.46% and a return on equity of 9.57%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.28 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Ameris Bancorp will post 4.99 EPS for the current year.

Ameris Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 6th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 31st. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Ameris Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 12.58%.

About Ameris Bancorp

Ameris Bancorp is a bank holding company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Through its principal subsidiary, Ameris Bank, the company offers a broad range of commercial and retail banking services to individuals, small businesses, middle market companies and agricultural customers. Its core business lines encompass deposit services, lending solutions, treasury management, mortgage origination and servicing, insurance products and wealth management.

Ameris Bancorp operates a network of branches and loan production offices across the southeastern United States, including Georgia, Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.