Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Amerant Bancorp currently carries an average analyst rating of "Hold" from five brokerages, with three hold ratings and two buy ratings. The consensus 12-month price target is about $23.67.
• The company recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.44 EPS versus $0.43 expected, and revenue of $177.94 million versus estimates of $102.56 million. Analysts now expect full-year EPS of 1.79.
• Amerant Bancorp also paid a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, equal to an annualized yield of about 1.4%. Institutional investors hold 42.11% of the stock, and several large funds increased or initiated positions recently.

Shares of Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB - Get Free Report) have been given an average recommendation of "Hold" by the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have covered 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 note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Weiss Ratings cut Amerant Bancorp from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Amerant Bancorp from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd.

Institutional Trading of Amerant Bancorp

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Amerant Bancorp by 0.3% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,732,375 shares of the company's stock valued at $110,463,000 after purchasing an additional 19,426 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 9.3% during the fourth 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 period. Patriot Financial Partners GP II L.P. bought a new stake in Amerant Bancorp in the 3rd quarter worth $44,621,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 10.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,388,926 shares of the company's stock worth $30,611,000 after purchasing an additional 133,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 9.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,173,568 shares of the company's stock worth $22,896,000 after buying an additional 104,578 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 42.11% of the company's stock.

Amerant Bancorp Trading Up 0.0%

NYSE:AMTB opened at $25.64 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $23.68 and a 200-day moving average of $22.49. The company has a market cap of $1.01 billion, a PE ratio of 18.18 and a beta of 0.88. Amerant Bancorp has a one year low of $15.62 and a one year high of $26.33.

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $177.94 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $102.56 million. Amerant Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 8.83%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amerant Bancorp will post 1.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. 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.

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