Bank of New York Mellon Corp Grows Position in Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB – Get Rating) by 2.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 751,584 shares of the bank’s stock after buying an additional 19,741 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned approximately 1.08% of Ameris Bancorp worth $33,604,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ABCB. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Ameris Bancorp by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,150,631 shares of the bank’s stock worth $453,836,000 after acquiring an additional 158,483 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 7.4% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,201,328 shares of the bank’s stock worth $228,235,000 after purchasing an additional 358,777 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 14.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,897,720 shares of the bank’s stock worth $171,622,000 after purchasing an additional 488,485 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 7.1% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,630,195 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $162,307,000 after purchasing an additional 240,506 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 16.4% during the 2nd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,084,654 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $83,761,000 after buying an additional 293,289 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.74% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on ABCB. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Ameris Bancorp from $63.00 to $60.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 31st. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Ameris Bancorp from $60.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 1st. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a research note on Friday, March 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $62.00 target price on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a report on Monday, December 5th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Ameris Bancorp news, Director William I. Jr. Bowen bought 670 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 10th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $41.20 per share, for a total transaction of $27,604.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 22,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $942,326.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

Ameris Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of Ameris Bancorp stock opened at $37.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a PE ratio of 7.44 and a beta of 1.13. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $47.62 and a 200 day moving average of $48.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. Ameris Bancorp has a 12 month low of $36.04 and a 12 month high of $54.24.

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Friday, January 27th. The bank reported $1.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.17). Ameris Bancorp had a net margin of 29.41% and a return on equity of 10.63%. The firm had revenue of $272.49 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $281.13 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.17 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Ameris Bancorp will post 5.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ameris Bancorp Company Profile

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Ameris Bancorp is a bank holding company, which through the subsidiary, Ameris Bank, engages in the provision of banking services to its retail and commercial customers. It operates through the following business segments: Banking, Retail Mortgage, Warehouse Lending, the SBA and Premium Finance. The Banking segment offers full service financial services to include commercial loans, consumer loans and deposit accounts.