Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) Short Interest Up 9.1% in June

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,090,000 shares, an increase of 9.1% from the May 31st total of 999,500 shares. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 291,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.7 days.

Institutional Trading of Ameris Bancorp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ABCB. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ameris Bancorp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,787,000. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Ameris Bancorp by 50.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 845,390 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $44,848,000 after buying an additional 283,138 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 4,193.6% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 229,408 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,163,000 after purchasing an additional 224,065 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,193,610 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $222,473,000 after purchasing an additional 205,750 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Independent Advisor Alliance grew its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance now owns 2,514,293 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $133,383,000 after purchasing an additional 201,644 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ABCB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on Ameris Bancorp from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Ameris Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Ameris Bancorp from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $53.00 price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $52.00.

Ameris Bancorp Trading Up 0.6 %

NASDAQ:ABCB opened at $50.61 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.04. Ameris Bancorp has a one year low of $33.21 and a one year high of $53.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.57. The stock has a market cap of $3.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.31 and a beta of 1.04.

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The bank reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.04 by $0.06. Ameris Bancorp had a return on equity of 8.62% and a net margin of 18.06%. The business had revenue of $267.27 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $258.05 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down .2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ameris Bancorp will post 4.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameris Bancorp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 8th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 28th. Ameris Bancorp’s payout ratio is currently 14.60%.

About Ameris Bancorp

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.