Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) Price Target Raised to $31.00

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) had its price objective upped by Keefe, Bruyette & Woods from $26.00 to $31.00 in a research note released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market perform rating on the stock.

AMTB has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded Amerant Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Amerant Bancorp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $26.33.

Amerant Bancorp Stock Performance

AMTB stock opened at $29.52 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.86 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $25.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.37. Amerant Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $15.62 and a fifty-two week high of $30.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.16 billion, a PE ratio of 21.23 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $183.31 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $98.64 million. Amerant Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.30% and a net margin of 8.76%. Analysts forecast that Amerant Bancorp will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. Amerant Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 25.90%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

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