PL Capital Advisors LLC Has $4.16 Million Stock Holdings in Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB)

PL Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) by 27.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 78,497 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 30,000 shares during the period. Ameris Bancorp makes up about 1.4% of PL Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest holding. PL Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ameris Bancorp were worth $4,164,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of ABCB. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,547,134 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $97,784,000 after purchasing an additional 90,694 shares during the period. Independent Advisor Alliance raised its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,312,649 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $88,783,000 after purchasing an additional 10,692 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. MA raised its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter. Congress Asset Management Co. MA now owns 704,319 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $27,039,000 after purchasing an additional 46,874 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 687,567 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $26,396,000 after purchasing an additional 38,863 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Creek Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Creek Advisors LLC now owns 294,563 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $11,308,000 after purchasing an additional 1,284 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on ABCB shares. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 1st. DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a report on Monday, January 15th. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $53.00 target price on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ameris Bancorp from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ameris Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.25.

Ameris Bancorp Stock Up 0.8 %

Ameris Bancorp stock opened at $47.88 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.65 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.02, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. Ameris Bancorp has a twelve month low of $28.33 and a twelve month high of $53.99. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $46.59 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $46.22.

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

Ameris Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 27th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.25%. Ameris Bancorp’s payout ratio is presently 14.60%.

Ameris Bancorp Profile

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.