Ameris Bancorp (ABCB)

Regional banking company Ameris Bancorp (NYSE:ABCB) fell short of the markets revenue expectations in Q4 CY2025, but sales rose 5.5% year on year to $307.1 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.59 per share was 0.9% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Company Overview

Tracing its roots back to 1971 and expanding significantly through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions, Ameris Bancorp (NYSE:ABCB) is a financial holding company that provides a full range of banking services to retail and commercial customers across select markets in the southeastern United States.

Regional banks, financial institutions operating within specific geographic areas, serve as intermediaries between local depositors and borrowers. They benefit from rising interest rates that improve net interest margins (the difference between loan yields and deposit costs), digital transformation reducing operational expenses, and local economic growth driving loan demand. However, these banks face headwinds from fintech competition, deposit outflows to higher-yielding alternatives, credit deterioration (increasing loan defaults) during economic slowdowns, and regulatory compliance costs. Recent concerns about regional bank stability following high-profile failures and significant commercial real estate exposure present additional challenges.

Ameris Bancorp competes with other regional banks operating in the southeastern United States, including Synovus Financial (NYSE:SNV), United Community Banks (NASDAQ:UCBI), South State Corporation (NASDAQ:SSB), and Regions Financial Corporation (NYSE:RF), as well as national banking institutions with significant presence in its markets.

In general, banks make money from two primary sources. The first is net interest income, which is interest earned on loans, mortgages, and investments in securities minus interest paid out on deposits. The second source is non-interest income, which can come from bank account, credit card, wealth management, investing banking, and trading fees. Regrettably, Ameris Bancorp’s revenue grew at a weak 1.6% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This was below our standards and is a tough starting point for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. Ameris Bancorp’s annualized revenue growth of 5.7% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, but we were still disappointed by the results. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

This quarter, Ameris Bancorp’s revenue grew by 5.5% year on year to $307.1 million, missing Wall Street’s estimates.

Net interest income made up 74.1% of the company’s total revenue during the last five years, meaning lending operations are Ameris Bancorp’s largest source of revenue.

Net interest income commands greater market attention due to its reliability and consistency, whereas non-interest income is often seen as lower-quality revenue that lacks the same dependable characteristics.

The underlying profitability of top-line growth determines the actual bottom-line impact. Banking institutions measure this dynamic using the efficiency ratio, which is calculated by dividing non-interest expenses like personnel, facilities, technology, and marketing by total revenue.

Markets understand that a bank’s expense base depends on its revenue mix and what mostly drives share price performance is the change in this ratio, rather than its absolute value. It’s somewhat counterintuitive, but a lower efficiency ratio is better.

Over the last five years, Ameris Bancorp’s efficiency ratio has swelled by 3 percentage points, going from 55% to 50.1%. Said differently, the company’s expenses have grown at a slower rate than revenue, which typically signals prudent management.

Ameris Bancorp’s efficiency ratio came in at 46.6% this quarter, beating analysts’ expectations by 343.8 basis points (100 basis points = 1 percentage point). This result was 5.2 percentage points better than the same quarter last year.

For the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Ameris Bancorp to maintain its trailing one-year ratio with a projection of 50.9%.

We track the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) for the same reason as long-term revenue growth. Compared to revenue, however, EPS highlights whether a company’s growth is profitable.

Ameris Bancorp’s EPS grew at an unimpressive 6.7% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years. This performance was better than its flat revenue but doesn’t tell us much about its business quality because its efficiency ratio didn’t improve.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For Ameris Bancorp, its two-year annual EPS growth of 22.4% was higher than its five-year trend. This acceleration made it one of the faster-growing banking companies in recent history.

In Q4, Ameris Bancorp reported adjusted EPS of $1.59, up from $1.38 in the same quarter last year. This print was close to analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Ameris Bancorp’s full-year EPS of $5.99 to grow 4.6%.

The balance sheet drives banking profitability since earnings flow from the spread between borrowing and lending rates. As such, valuations for these companies concentrate on capital strength and sustainable equity accumulation potential.

This explains why tangible book value per share (TBVPS) stands as the premier banking metric. TBVPS strips away questionable intangible assets, revealing concrete per-share net worth that investors can trust. On the other hand, EPS is often distorted by mergers and flexible loan loss accounting. TBVPS provides clearer performance insights.

Ameris Bancorp’s TBVPS grew at an incredible 13.2% annual clip over the last five years. TBVPS growth has also accelerated recently, growing by 14.4% annually over the last two years from $33.77 to $44.18 per share.

Over the next 12 months, Consensus estimates call for Ameris Bancorp’s TBVPS to grow by 11.9% to $49.42, mediocre growth rate.

Leverage is core to a financial firm’s business model (loans funded by deposits). To ensure economic stability and avoid a repeat of the 2008 GFC, regulators require certain levels of capital and liquidity, focusing on the Tier 1 capital ratio.

Tier 1 capital is the highest-quality capital that a firm holds, consisting primarily of common stock and retained earnings, but also physical gold. It serves as the primary cushion against losses and is the first line of defense in times of financial distress.

This capital is divided by risk-weighted assets to derive the Tier 1 capital ratio. Risk-weighted means that cash and US treasury securities are assigned little risk while unsecured consumer loans and equity investments get much higher risk weights, for example.

New regulation after the 2008 financial crisis requires that all firms must maintain a Tier 1 capital ratio greater than 4.5%. On top of this, there are additional buffers based on scale, risk profile, and other regulatory classifications, so that at the end of the day, firms generally must maintain a 7-10% ratio at minimum.

Over the last two years, Ameris Bancorp has averaged a Tier 1 capital ratio of 12.4%, which is considered safe and well capitalized in the event that macro or market conditions suddenly deteriorate.

Return on equity (ROE) reveals the profit generated per dollar of shareholder equity, which represents a key source of bank funding. Banks maintaining elevated ROE levels tend to accelerate wealth creation for shareholders via earnings retention, buybacks, and distributions.

Over the last five years, Ameris Bancorp has averaged an ROE of 10.7%, respectable for a company operating in a sector where the average shakes out around 7.5% and those putting up 15%+ are greatly admired.

It was encouraging to see Ameris Bancorp beat analysts’ net interest income and EPS expectations this quarter. On the other hand, its revenue slightly missed. Overall, this was a mixed quarter. The stock remained flat at $81.39 immediately after reporting.

Updated: January 29, 2026 at 5:41 PM EST

Before making an investment decision, investors should account for Ameris Bancorp’s business fundamentals and valuation in addition to what happened in the latest quarter.

Ameris Bancorp’s business quality ultimately falls short of our standards. To kick things off, its revenue growth was weak over the last five years. And while its TBVPS growth was exceptional over the last five years, the downside is its estimated net interest income for the next 12 months are weak. On top of that, its unimpressive EPS growth over the last five years shows it’s failed to produce meaningful profits for shareholders.

Ameris Bancorp’s P/B ratio based on the next 12 months is 1.2x. This valuation is reasonable, but the company’s shakier fundamentals present too much downside risk. We're pretty confident there are more exciting stocks to buy at the moment.

Wall Street analysts have a consensus one-year price target of $83.29 on the company (compared to the current share price of $81.39).