Stephens Reiterates Equal Weight Rating for Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB)

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating restated by Stephens in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $53.00 target price on the bank’s stock. Stephens’ price objective points to a potential upside of 10.69% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on ABCB. Truist Financial decreased their target price on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 1st. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a research report on Monday, January 15th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Ameris Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.25.

Ameris Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ABCB opened at $47.88 on Friday. Ameris Bancorp has a fifty-two week low of $28.33 and a fifty-two week high of $53.99. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $46.22. The company has a market capitalization of $3.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.65 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) last announced its earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The bank reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.04. Ameris Bancorp had a net margin of 18.06% and a return on equity of 8.71%. The business had revenue of $267.27 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $258.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.86 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down .2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Ameris Bancorp will post 4.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Ameris Bancorp

In other Ameris Bancorp news, insider Jon S. Edwards sold 7,500 shares of Ameris Bancorp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $47.35, for a total value of $355,125.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 59,691 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,826,368.85. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 5.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ameris Bancorp

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ameris Bancorp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,467,880 shares of the bank’s stock worth $396,171,000 after purchasing an additional 33,386 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in Ameris Bancorp by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,193,610 shares of the bank’s stock worth $222,473,000 after purchasing an additional 205,750 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Ameris Bancorp by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,547,134 shares of the bank’s stock worth $97,784,000 after purchasing an additional 90,694 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance grew its position in Ameris Bancorp by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,514,293 shares of the bank’s stock worth $133,383,000 after purchasing an additional 201,644 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Ameris Bancorp by 50.4% in the 4th quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 845,390 shares of the bank’s stock worth $44,848,000 after purchasing an additional 283,138 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

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.