FJ Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Towne Bank $TOWN

FJ Capital Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) by 17.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 182,586 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 39,873 shares during the period. FJ Capital Management LLC owned 0.24% of Towne Bank worth $6,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in shares of Towne Bank by 22.0% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 330,937 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $11,441,000 after purchasing an additional 59,770 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Towne Bank by 51.5% in the third quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 341,471 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,805,000 after purchasing an additional 116,013 shares during the last quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. boosted its holdings in Towne Bank by 24.2% in the fourth quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. now owns 175,430 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,854,000 after purchasing an additional 34,133 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP boosted its stake in shares of Towne Bank by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 603,649 shares of the bank’s stock worth $20,868,000 after acquiring an additional 40,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boothbay Fund Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Towne Bank by 147.2% during the 3rd quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 157,289 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,437,000 after acquiring an additional 93,673 shares during the last quarter. 55.99% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TOWN has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Towne Bank from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Hovde Group dropped their price target on shares of Towne Bank from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 27th. Zacks Research cut shares of Towne Bank from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and issued a $38.00 price objective (down from $42.00) on shares of Towne Bank in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $39.50.

Towne Bank Stock Performance

TOWN opened at $35.67 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.02 and a beta of 0.70. Towne Bank has a 52-week low of $31.91 and a 52-week high of $37.86. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.66.

Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. Towne Bank had a net margin of 13.51% and a return on equity of 9.91%. The business had revenue of $247.62 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $274.02 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.68 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 34.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Towne Bank will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Towne Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Investors of record on Friday, June 26th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 26th. This is an increase from Towne Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Towne Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 54.55%.

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.