Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) Board Initiates Share Buyback Plan

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Monday, March 10th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $40.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to buy up to 4.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Amalgamated Financial Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:AMAL opened at $29.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $890.63 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.42 and a beta of 0.93. Amalgamated Financial has a 1-year low of $21.33 and a 1-year high of $38.19. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $33.87 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.67.

Amalgamated Financial (NASDAQ:AMAL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.87 by $0.03. Amalgamated Financial had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 24.50%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Amalgamated Financial will post 3.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Amalgamated Financial Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, February 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.93%. This is a positive change from Amalgamated Financial’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Amalgamated Financial’s payout ratio is presently 16.23%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Amalgamated Financial from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Piper Sandler cut Amalgamated Financial from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, February 21st.

Insider Activity at Amalgamated Financial

In related news, EVP Tyrone Graham sold 869 shares of Amalgamated Financial stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.73, for a total transaction of $25,835.37. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 10,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $314,543.40. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder States Regional Joint Western sold 18,000 shares of Amalgamated Financial stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.27, for a total value of $616,860.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,167,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $245,641,054.32. The trade was a 0.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 30,916 shares of company stock valued at $1,035,526. Insiders own 0.90% of the company’s stock.

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.