4,148 Shares in AMERISAFE, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF) Acquired by Virtu Financial LLC

Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in AMERISAFE, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMSF) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 4,148 shares of the insurance provider’s stock, valued at approximately $200,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Granite Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AMERISAFE by 136.0% during the 2nd quarter. Granite Investment Partners LLC now owns 147,654 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $6,481,000 after acquiring an additional 85,089 shares in the last quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AMERISAFE by 13.5% during the second quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc. now owns 701,806 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $30,802,000 after purchasing an additional 83,438 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of AMERISAFE by 8.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 811,561 shares of the insurance provider’s stock worth $39,223,000 after purchasing an additional 63,638 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of AMERISAFE by 70.4% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 114,088 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $5,514,000 after buying an additional 47,131 shares during the period. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in AMERISAFE by 238.6% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 61,946 shares of the insurance provider’s stock valued at $2,719,000 after buying an additional 43,649 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of AMERISAFE from $48.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th. JMP Securities restated a “market outperform” rating and issued a $65.00 price objective on shares of AMERISAFE in a report on Tuesday, October 15th.

AMERISAFE Price Performance

Shares of AMSF stock opened at $51.90 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $988.70 million, a PE ratio of 16.22 and a beta of 0.33. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $55.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.71. AMERISAFE, Inc. has a one year low of $41.97 and a one year high of $60.24.

AMERISAFE (NASDAQ:AMSF) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The insurance provider reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.02. AMERISAFE had a net margin of 19.49% and a return on equity of 16.50%. The company had revenue of $78.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $75.38 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that AMERISAFE, Inc. will post 2.45 earnings per share for the current year.

AMERISAFE Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $3.37 dividend. This represents a $13.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 25.97%. This is an increase from AMERISAFE’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. AMERISAFE’s payout ratio is currently 46.25%.

AMERISAFE Company Profile

AMERISAFE, Inc, an insurance holding company, underwrites workers’ compensation insurance in the United States. The company provides benefits to injured employees for temporary or permanent disability, death, and medical and hospital expenses. It sells its products through retail and wholesale brokers and agents; and small and mid-sized employers engaged in hazardous industries, including construction, trucking, logging and lumber, agriculture, manufacturing, telecommunications, and maritime.