Vestcor Inc Has $134,000 Stock Holdings in Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB)

Vestcor Inc reduced its stake in shares of Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) by 87.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,154 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 14,912 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Ameris Bancorp were worth $134,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. 1620 Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Ameris Bancorp during the second quarter worth $33,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Ameris Bancorp by 249.5% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 713 shares of the bank’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 509 shares during the period. CWM LLC increased its holdings in Ameris Bancorp by 33.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,310 shares of the bank’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 329 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 38.0% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,130 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 311 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Ameris Bancorp by 3,396.4% in the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,923 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $120,000 after purchasing an additional 1,868 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stephens lifted their target price on Ameris Bancorp from $64.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Ameris Bancorp from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $67.00 target price for the company in a report on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Ameris Bancorp from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Ameris Bancorp from $73.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ameris Bancorp has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $69.17.

Ameris Bancorp Price Performance

Shares of ABCB opened at $66.64 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.13. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $59.57. Ameris Bancorp has a 1-year low of $44.00 and a 1-year high of $74.56. The company has a market cap of $4.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.88 and a beta of 1.03.

Ameris Bancorp (NASDAQ:ABCB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The bank reported $1.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.13. Ameris Bancorp had a net margin of 20.08% and a return on equity of 9.18%. The company had revenue of $424.86 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $290.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Ameris Bancorp will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ameris Bancorp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.90%. Ameris Bancorp’s dividend payout ratio is 12.50%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Robert Dale Ezzell sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.91, for a total transaction of $559,280.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 27,444 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,918,610.04. This trade represents a 22.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 5.50% of the company’s stock.

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.