Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $23.6667.

Several equities research analysts have commented on AMTB shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amerant Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Patriot Financial Partners GP II L.P. acquired a new position in Amerant Bancorp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,621,000. North Reef Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Amerant Bancorp in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,577,000. Millennium Management LLC raised its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 756.2% in the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 437,847 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,437,000 after purchasing an additional 386,710 shares during the last quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in Amerant Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at about $4,153,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,424,944 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,311,000 after purchasing an additional 206,874 shares during the last quarter. 42.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amerant Bancorp Stock Performance

Shares of Amerant Bancorp stock opened at $25.34 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $996.97 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.97 and a beta of 0.90. Amerant Bancorp has a 12 month low of $15.62 and a 12 month high of $26.11. 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 posted 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 net margin of 8.83% and a return on equity of 8.59%. The firm had revenue of $177.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $102.56 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Amerant Bancorp will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Amerant Bancorp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. Amerant Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 25.53%.

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.