Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Short Interest Update

Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,180,000 shares, a growth of 22.6% from the January 31st total of 962,800 shares. Currently, 6.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 199,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Amalgamated Financial Stock Performance

AMAL stock opened at $29.87 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $916.08 million, a PE ratio of 8.66 and a beta of 0.93. Amalgamated Financial has a 12-month low of $21.33 and a 12-month high of $38.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.70.

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

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.14 dividend. This is a boost from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 16.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Amalgamated Financial

In related news, Director Maryann Bruce sold 4,403 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.77, for a total transaction of $148,689.31. Following the sale, the director now owns 18,319 shares in the company, valued at $618,632.63. This represents a 19.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Sean Searby sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.49, for a total value of $97,470.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 17,639 shares in the company, valued at approximately $573,091.11. This trade represents a 14.54 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 26,730 shares of company stock valued at $908,522 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amalgamated Financial

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AMAL. Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel LLC purchased a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter worth $13,093,000. Congress Asset Management Co. purchased a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter worth $5,339,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 219.7% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 162,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,083,000 after buying an additional 111,357 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 567,609 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,806,000 after buying an additional 89,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Figure 8 Investment Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Amalgamated Financial in the 4th quarter worth $2,778,000. 75.93% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Amalgamated Financial Company 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.