Stephens Upgrades Amerant Bancorp (NASDAQ:AMTB) to Overweight

Stephens upgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp (NASDAQ:AMTB) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $25.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $24.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on AMTB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Amerant Bancorp from $26.00 to $24.00 and set a market perform rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a neutral rating to an overweight rating and increased their target price for the company from $26.00 to $26.50 in a research report on Monday. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott downgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a buy rating to a neutral rating and set a $25.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, July 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amerant Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $25.10.

Amerant Bancorp Stock Down 0.4 %

AMTB opened at $20.18 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.89. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $20.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $22.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $680.39 million, a P/E ratio of 29.68 and a beta of 0.99. Amerant Bancorp has a 12 month low of $16.63 and a 12 month high of $27.00.

Amerant Bancorp (NASDAQ:AMTB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.35 by ($0.07). The firm had revenue of $98.78 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $93.19 million. Amerant Bancorp had a net margin of 3.15% and a return on equity of 7.78%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.24 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Amerant Bancorp will post 1.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. Amerant Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.94%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 207,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,103,000 after buying an additional 2,649 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,113,483 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,498,000 after purchasing an additional 267,466 shares in the last quarter. Salzhauer Michael lifted its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 66.7% in the 1st quarter. Salzhauer Michael now owns 24,988 shares of the company’s stock valued at $582,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares in the last quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 89.8% in the 1st quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 13,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,000 after acquiring an additional 6,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,619,150 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,710,000 after acquiring an additional 10,835 shares in the last quarter. 42.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Amerant Bancorp

Amerant Bancorp Inc operates as the bank holding company for Amerant Bank, N.A. that provides banking products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States and internationally. It offers checking, savings, business, and money market accounts; cash management services; and certificates of deposits.