TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN – Get Rating) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 30th will be paid a dividend of 0.25 per share by the bank on Friday, July 14th. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 29th. This is a boost from TowneBank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23.

TowneBank has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.3% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. TowneBank has a dividend payout ratio of 40.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect TowneBank to earn $2.32 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 39.7%.

TowneBank Price Performance

NASDAQ:TOWN opened at $23.37 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $24.55 and a 200-day moving average of $28.65. The company has a market capitalization of $1.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39 and a beta of 0.95. TowneBank has a 52 week low of $21.22 and a 52 week high of $33.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.90.

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 27th. The bank reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $224.16 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $188.79 million. TowneBank had a return on equity of 10.04% and a net margin of 22.91%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that TowneBank will post 2.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TOWN has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of TowneBank from $34.00 to $28.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of TowneBank from $31.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Monday, May 1st. 22nd Century Group reiterated a “maintains” rating on shares of TowneBank in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of TowneBank in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “sell” rating for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on shares of TowneBank from $32.00 to $28.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TowneBank presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.00.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TOWN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in TowneBank by 12.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,253,308 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $217,165,000 after buying an additional 827,143 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in TowneBank in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $18,040,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of TowneBank by 24.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,709,804 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $46,809,000 after purchasing an additional 333,828 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in TowneBank by 6.5% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,151,219 shares of the bank’s stock worth $154,227,000 after buying an additional 316,304 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in TowneBank by 7.2% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,625,697 shares of the bank’s stock worth $96,624,000 after buying an additional 244,965 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 52.75% of the company’s stock.

TowneBank Company Profile

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TowneBank engages in the provision of retail and commercial banking services to individuals and small and medium size businesses. It operates through the following segments: Banking, Realty, and Insurance. The Banking segment offers loan and deposit services to retail and commercial customers. The Realty segment focuses on the provision of residential real estate services and originations of a variety of mortgage loans.