Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Short Interest Update

Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,180,000 shares, a growth of 22.6% from the January 31st total of 962,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 199,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.9 days. Currently, 6.3% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AMAL. Piper Sandler cut Amalgamated Financial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Amalgamated Financial from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Maryann Bruce sold 4,403 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.77, for a total transaction of $148,689.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 18,319 shares in the company, valued at $618,632.63. The trade was a 19.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Sean Searby sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.49, for a total value of $97,470.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 17,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $573,091.11. This trade represents a 14.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,730 shares of company stock valued at $908,522 over the last 90 days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amalgamated Financial

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AMAL. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new stake in shares of Amalgamated Financial during the fourth quarter worth about $34,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Park Square Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $41,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System acquired a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its position in Amalgamated Financial by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 512 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.93% of the company’s stock.

Amalgamated Financial Price Performance

Amalgamated Financial stock opened at $29.87 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.70. The stock has a market cap of $916.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.66 and a beta of 0.93. Amalgamated Financial has a 12-month low of $21.33 and a 12-month 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 released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. Amalgamated Financial had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 24.50%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Amalgamated Financial will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.87%. This is a positive change from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.23%.

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.