Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) Lowered to “Neutral” Rating by Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler downgraded shares of Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $38.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $42.00.

Separately, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Amalgamated Financial Stock Down 7.7 %

Shares of AMAL stock opened at $32.56 on Friday. Amalgamated Financial has a 12-month low of $21.33 and a 12-month high of $38.19. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $34.60 and a 200-day moving average of $33.58. The company has a market capitalization of $998.46 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.44 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

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

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, February 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. This is a boost from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amalgamated Financial

In other Amalgamated Financial news, Director Maryann Bruce sold 4,403 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.77, for a total value of $148,689.31. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 18,319 shares in the company, valued at $618,632.63. This trade represents a 19.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder States Regional Joint Western sold 1,327 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.29, for a total transaction of $45,502.83. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,121,506 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $244,196,440.74. This represents a 0.02 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,730 shares of company stock worth $811,052 over the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Amalgamated Financial

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AMAL. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 74.9% in the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,414 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 1,034 shares during the period. Creative Planning raised its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 24.8% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 14,156 shares of the company’s stock valued at $444,000 after purchasing an additional 2,812 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Amalgamated Financial in the third quarter valued at about $1,440,000. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Amalgamated Financial in the third quarter valued at about $453,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.93% of the company’s stock.

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.