Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) Lowered to “Neutral” Rating by Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler cut shares of Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $38.00 price objective on the stock, down from their prior price objective of $42.00.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Amalgamated Financial from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Amalgamated Financial Trading Down 7.7 %

NASDAQ:AMAL opened at $32.56 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $33.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $998.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.44 and a beta of 0.92. Amalgamated Financial has a 1-year low of $21.33 and a 1-year high of $38.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. Amalgamated Financial had a net margin of 24.50% and a return on equity of 16.49%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Amalgamated Financial will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.14 dividend. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. This is a positive change from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio is 16.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder States Regional Joint Western sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total transaction of $616,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,167,816 shares in the company, valued at approximately $245,641,054.32. This trade represents a 0.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Maryann Bruce sold 4,403 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.77, for a total value of $148,689.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,319 shares in the company, valued at $618,632.63. This trade represents a 19.38 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 23,730 shares of company stock worth $811,052. 0.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amalgamated Financial

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMAL. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC acquired a new position in shares of Amalgamated Financial during the 4th quarter worth $13,093,000. Congress Asset Management Co. bought a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the fourth quarter worth $5,339,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Amalgamated Financial by 219.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 162,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,083,000 after buying an additional 111,357 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Amalgamated Financial by 18.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 567,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,806,000 after buying an additional 89,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Figure 8 Investment Strategies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Amalgamated Financial in the fourth quarter worth about $2,778,000. Institutional investors own 75.93% of the company’s stock.

About Amalgamated Financial

Amalgamated Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Amalgamated Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, investment management, and trust and custody services for commercial and retail customers in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including non-interest bearing accounts, interest-bearing demand products, savings accounts, money market accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit.