Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Short Interest Up 5.3% in March

Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 881,100 shares, an increase of 5.3% from the March 15th total of 837,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 154,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.7 days. Approximately 5.0% of the company’s stock are sold short.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $33.00 to $29.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 4th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amalgamated Financial

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 33,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,300 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 15.4% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 354,255 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,366,000 after purchasing an additional 47,214 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 109,877 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,974,000 after purchasing an additional 4,203 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 28.8% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 65,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,183,000 after purchasing an additional 14,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 10,061 shares of the company’s stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,463 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.93% of the company’s stock.

Amalgamated Financial Stock Performance

Shares of Amalgamated Financial stock opened at $21.49 on Thursday. Amalgamated Financial has a 1 year low of $14.05 and a 1 year high of $27.77. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $23.33 and its 200 day moving average is $22.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market cap of $655.45 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.51 and a beta of 0.94.

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The company reported $0.72 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by ($0.01). Amalgamated Financial had a return on equity of 16.60% and a net margin of 22.71%. The business had revenue of $105.39 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $71.59 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Amalgamated Financial will post 3.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Amalgamated Financial Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 6th were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.86%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 5th. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.99%.

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.