Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Shares Acquired by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) by 10.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,992 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,722 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Amalgamated Financial were worth $636,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. US Bancorp DE boosted its position in Amalgamated Financial by 28.4% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,312 shares of the company’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in shares of Amalgamated Financial during the 4th quarter worth approximately $34,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Amalgamated Financial during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Martingale Asset Management L P grew its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Martingale Asset Management L P now owns 72,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,286,000 after acquiring an additional 1,450 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Teachers Retirement System purchased a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter worth $55,000. 75.93% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on AMAL shares. Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Amalgamated Financial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, February 21st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Amalgamated Financial Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of AMAL opened at $29.87 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $916.08 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.66 and a beta of 0.93. Amalgamated Financial Corp. has a one year low of $21.33 and a one year high of $38.19.

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.03. Amalgamated Financial had a net margin of 24.50% and a return on equity of 16.49%. Equities research analysts forecast that Amalgamated Financial Corp. will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.14 dividend. This is an increase from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.23%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Sean Searby sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.49, for a total value of $97,470.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 17,639 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $573,091.11. This represents a 14.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder States Regional Joint Western sold 1,327 shares of Amalgamated Financial stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.29, for a total transaction of $45,502.83. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,121,506 shares in the company, valued at $244,196,440.74. This trade represents a 0.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 26,730 shares of company stock valued at $908,522 in the last ninety days. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Amalgamated Financial Profile

Amalgamated Financial Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Amalgamated Bank that provides commercial and retail banking, investment management, and trust and custody services for commercial and retail customers in the United States. The company accepts various deposit products, including non-interest bearing accounts, interest-bearing demand products, savings accounts, money market accounts, NOW accounts, and certificates of deposit.