Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on TOWN. Hovde Group cut their price objective on shares of Towne Bank from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Towne Bank in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $41.00.

Towne Bank Trading Up 1.2%

TOWN opened at $34.97 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.02, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.87. Towne Bank has a one year low of $31.91 and a one year high of $37.86. The company has a market cap of $2.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.66 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.40.

Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.74. The firm had revenue of $247.62 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $274.02 million. Towne Bank had a return on equity of 10.48% and a net margin of 13.51%.The firm’s revenue was up 34.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Towne Bank will post 3.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Towne Bank

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TOWN. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Towne Bank by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,082,514 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $269,713,000 after purchasing an additional 443,345 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Towne Bank by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,339,745 shares of the bank’s stock worth $144,819,000 after purchasing an additional 17,143 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Towne Bank by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,138,398 shares of the bank’s stock worth $71,931,000 after buying an additional 21,482 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Towne Bank by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,811,213 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $60,448,000 after acquiring an additional 12,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its stake in shares of Towne Bank by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,515,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $50,562,000 after purchasing an additional 23,069 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

About Towne Bank

TowneBank is a Virginia‐based financial services company organized as a bank holding company. Its primary subsidiary, TowneBank, operates a network of community banking offices and mortgage production facilities. The company offers a comprehensive range of commercial and consumer banking solutions, including deposit accounts, lending products, treasury management, and private banking services tailored to individuals, small businesses, and middle‐market corporations.

In addition to traditional banking, TowneBank provides specialty services through affiliated subsidiaries.