Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $27.75.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Amerant Bancorp from $26.00 to $31.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 22nd. Stephens downgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $32.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd.

Amerant Bancorp Stock Performance

AMTB opened at $29.16 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $23.74. Amerant Bancorp has a 1 year low of $15.62 and a 1 year high of $30.60. The company has a market capitalization of $1.14 billion, a PE ratio of 20.98 and a beta of 0.87.

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 23rd. The company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.14. Amerant Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.30% and a net margin of 8.76%.The firm had revenue of $183.31 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $98.64 million. Research analysts expect that Amerant Bancorp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. Amerant Bancorp’s payout ratio is 25.90%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amerant Bancorp

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Amerant Bancorp by 83.0% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 22,594 shares of the company’s stock valued at $466,000 after acquiring an additional 10,249 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 21,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 963 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 6.3% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 91,965 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,898,000 after purchasing an additional 5,434 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 1.8% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 35,819 shares of the company’s stock worth $653,000 after purchasing an additional 617 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Amerant Bancorp in the second quarter worth $275,000. Institutional investors own 42.11% of the company’s stock.

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.