Legato Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in Amerant Bancorp Inc. $AMTB

Legato Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Amerant Bancorp Inc. (NYSE:AMTB) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 49,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $964,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. ELCO Management Co. LLC purchased a new stake in Amerant Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $232,000. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in Amerant Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $611,000. Salzhauer Michael purchased a new stake in Amerant Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth about $390,000. UBS Group AG increased its stake in shares of Amerant Bancorp by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 130,932 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,554,000 after purchasing an additional 33,935 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased 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 in the last quarter. 42.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Amerant Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of AMTB opened at $22.46 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $883.84 million, a P/E ratio of 15.93 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $22.63 and a 200 day moving average of $21.18. Amerant Bancorp Inc. has a twelve month low of $15.62 and a twelve month high of $24.38.

Amerant Bancorp (NYSE:AMTB) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $177.94 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $102.56 million. Amerant Bancorp had a net margin of 8.83% and a return on equity of 8.59%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Amerant Bancorp Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amerant Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 29th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Amerant Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AMTB has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Amerant Bancorp from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Amerant Bancorp from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Amerant Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday. 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Amerant Bancorp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.67.

Amerant Bancorp 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.