Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) Cut to “Neutral” at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler lowered shares of Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $38.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $42.00.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price 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 Price Performance

NASDAQ:AMAL opened at $32.56 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $998.46 million, a PE ratio of 9.44 and a beta of 0.92. Amalgamated Financial has a 12 month low of $21.33 and a 12 month high of $38.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $34.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.58.

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) last announced 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%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Amalgamated Financial will post 3.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.72%. This is a positive change from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 16.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Maryann Bruce sold 4,403 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.77, for a total transaction of $148,689.31. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 18,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $618,632.63. The trade was a 19.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder States Regional Joint Western sold 18,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total transaction of $616,860.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,167,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,641,054.32. This trade represents a 0.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,730 shares of company stock valued at $811,052 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Amalgamated Financial

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 10,186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $341,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 28.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,312 shares of the company’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 13,175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $441,000 after purchasing an additional 512 shares in the last quarter. Corton Capital Inc. increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Corton Capital Inc. now owns 7,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aquatic Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC now owns 11,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $378,000 after purchasing an additional 882 shares in the last quarter. 75.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Amalgamated Financial

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.