Short Interest in Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) Grows By 5.3%

Amalgamated Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:AMAL) was the target 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 volume of 154,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.7 days. Currently, 5.0% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on AMAL. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $32.00 to $30.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $33.00 to $29.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 4th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Amalgamated Financial

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Amalgamated Financial by 23.4% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 3,031,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,780,000 after buying an additional 574,571 shares in the last quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its position in Amalgamated Financial by 2.8% in the third quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 2,182,279 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,579,000 after purchasing an additional 59,337 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Amalgamated Financial by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,124,536 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,295,000 after purchasing an additional 3,675 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Amalgamated Financial by 13.9% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,005,772 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,096,000 after purchasing an additional 122,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in Amalgamated Financial by 3.9% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 862,875 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,859,000 after purchasing an additional 32,733 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 AMAL traded down $0.16 on Tuesday, reaching $21.62. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 19,378 shares, compared to its average volume of 148,166. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 0.65 and a quick ratio of 0.65. Amalgamated Financial has a 12-month low of $14.05 and a 12-month high of $27.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $659.41 million, a P/E ratio of 7.62 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $23.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.59.

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

Amalgamated Financial Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 6th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 5th. Amalgamated Financial’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.