Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 895,600 shares, a growth of 8.2% from the November 30th total of 828,100 shares. Approximately 4.8% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 178,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.0 days.

Insider Transactions at Amalgamated Financial

In related news, major shareholder States Regional Joint Western sold 63,004 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.81, for a total value of $2,067,161.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 423,022 shares in the company, valued at $13,879,351.82. This trade represents a 12.96 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Jason Darby sold 4,000 shares of Amalgamated Financial stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.59, for a total transaction of $146,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,837,110.72. This trade represents a 7.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 591,849 shares of company stock valued at $21,099,252. Corporate insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Amalgamated Financial by 219.7% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 162,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,083,000 after purchasing an additional 111,357 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 18.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 567,609 shares of the company’s stock valued at $17,806,000 after acquiring an additional 89,444 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Amalgamated Financial by 17.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 428,745 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,748,000 after acquiring an additional 63,561 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Amalgamated Financial by 91.7% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 119,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,739,000 after acquiring an additional 57,008 shares during the period. Finally, Seizert Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Amalgamated Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,781,000. 75.93% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AMAL. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Amalgamated Financial from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on Amalgamated Financial from $39.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th.

Amalgamated Financial Stock Performance

Shares of AMAL stock opened at $33.47 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $34.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.87. Amalgamated Financial has a 52 week low of $21.33 and a 52 week high of $38.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.03 billion, a PE ratio of 9.84 and a beta of 0.91.

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $111.76 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $79.50 million. Amalgamated Financial had a net margin of 24.19% and a return on equity of 16.00%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.76 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Amalgamated Financial will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Amalgamated Financial Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 5th were paid a $0.12 dividend. This represents a $0.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 5th. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 14.12%.

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.