Maltese Capital Management LLC Cuts Stake in Amerant Bancorp Inc. $AMTB

Maltese Capital Management LLC lowered its position in shares of Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) by 38.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 592,500 shares of the company’s stock after selling 374,818 shares during the period. Amerant Bancorp makes up about 2.1% of Maltese Capital Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Maltese Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Amerant Bancorp were worth $11,560,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at $78,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 11.8% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,986 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 526 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp during the second quarter valued at $129,000. Aquatic Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp during the third quarter valued at $143,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 60.5% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $144,000 after buying an additional 2,819 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 42.11% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMTB has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded Amerant Bancorp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Zacks Research lowered Amerant Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.67.

Amerant Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of AMTB stock opened at $23.28 on Tuesday. Amerant Bancorp Inc. has a 1-year low of $15.62 and a 1-year high of $24.38. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $23.06 and its 200 day moving average is $21.74. The company has a market cap of $916.03 million, a P/E ratio of 16.51 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.01. Amerant Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 8.83%.The company had revenue of $177.94 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $102.56 million. Research analysts predict that Amerant Bancorp Inc. will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amerant Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. Amerant Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.53%.

Amerant Bancorp Company Profile

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.