Persistent Asset Partners Ltd Buys New Shares in Amerant Bancorp Inc. $AMTB

Persistent Asset Partners Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 36,084 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $704,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 6.7% during the 4th quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 516,340 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,074,000 after purchasing an additional 32,275 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 81,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,582,000 after purchasing an additional 15,843 shares during the period. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC purchased a new position in Amerant Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,006,000. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 37,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $740,000 after purchasing an additional 3,862 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Amerant Bancorp by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 345,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,742,000 after purchasing an additional 23,231 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 42.11% of the company’s stock.

Amerant Bancorp Stock Performance

Amerant Bancorp stock opened at $23.22 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 0.87. The stock has a market cap of $913.75 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.47 and a beta of 0.90. Amerant Bancorp Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $15.62 and a fifty-two week high of $24.38.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $177.94 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $102.56 million. Amerant Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.59% and a net margin of 8.83%. As a group, analysts expect that Amerant Bancorp Inc. will post 1.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th were given a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 15th. Amerant Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 25.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMTB has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Zacks Research cut Amerant Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Amerant Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $23.67.

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.