Ameris Bancorp’s (ABCB) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Raymond James

Raymond James reissued their outperform rating on shares of Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. Raymond James currently has a $71.00 target price on the bank’s stock, up from their previous target price of $67.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on ABCB. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $71.00 price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a research note on Friday. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on Ameris Bancorp from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com raised Ameris Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ameris Bancorp presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.50.

Ameris Bancorp Stock Down 1.8 %

ABCB stock opened at $64.44 on Monday. Ameris Bancorp has a one year low of $44.22 and a one year high of $74.56. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $64.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $63.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.37 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.00 and a current ratio of 1.02.

Ameris Bancorp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 6th. Investors of record on Tuesday, December 31st were paid a dividend of $0.20 per share. This is a boost from Ameris Bancorp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 31st. Ameris Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.36%.

Insider Transactions at Ameris Bancorp

In other news, Director Robert Dale Ezzell sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.91, for a total transaction of $559,280.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 27,444 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,918,610.04. This represents a 22.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 5.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in Ameris Bancorp by 249.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 713 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 509 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Ameris Bancorp in the fourth quarter valued at about $51,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 38.0% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,130 shares of the bank’s stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the period. USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in Ameris Bancorp in the 4th quarter valued at $98,000. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Ameris Bancorp in the 4th quarter worth about $105,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Ameris Bancorp Company 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.