Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 33,386 Shares of Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB)

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) by 0.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 7,467,880 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 33,386 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of Ameris Bancorp worth $396,171,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,193,610 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $222,473,000 after acquiring an additional 205,750 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,547,134 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $97,784,000 after acquiring an additional 90,694 shares during the last quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance lifted its position in Ameris Bancorp by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,514,293 shares of the bank’s stock worth $133,383,000 after buying an additional 201,644 shares during the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Ameris Bancorp by 50.4% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 845,390 shares of the bank’s stock worth $44,848,000 after buying an additional 283,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Ameris Bancorp in the fourth quarter worth $39,787,000. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ABCB. StockNews.com upgraded Ameris Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $53.00 price target on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on Ameris Bancorp from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their price target on Ameris Bancorp from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 1st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.00.

Ameris Bancorp Stock Performance

ABCB stock opened at $49.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.39 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.57. Ameris Bancorp has a twelve month low of $33.21 and a twelve month high of $53.99. The firm has a market cap of $3.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.95 and a beta of 1.06.

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) last released its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The bank reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by $0.06. Ameris Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.62% and a net margin of 18.06%. The business had revenue of $267.27 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $258.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Ameris Bancorp will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Ameris Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. Ameris Bancorp’s payout ratio is 14.60%.

About Ameris Bancorp

Ameris Bancorp operates as the bank holding company for Ameris Bank that provides range of banking services to retail and commercial customers. It operates through five segments: Banking Division, Retail Mortgage Division, Warehouse Lending Division, SBA Division, and Premium Finance Division. The company offers commercial and retail checking, regular interest-bearing savings, money market, individual retirement, and certificates of deposit accounts.