NFJ Investment Group LLC Acquires New Stake in Towne Bank $TOWN

NFJ Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 444,099 shares of the bank’s stock, valued at approximately $14,820,000. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned about 0.59% of Towne Bank at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in Towne Bank by 22.3% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 150,038 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,007,000 after purchasing an additional 27,313 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Towne Bank by 1.5% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Bayview Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Towne Bank during the 4th quarter valued at $1,835,000. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in Towne Bank by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 198,084 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,610,000 after acquiring an additional 2,801 shares during the period. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in Towne Bank by 93.5% during the 4th quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 13,059 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $436,000 after acquiring an additional 6,311 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TOWN has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Towne Bank from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Towne Bank from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Hovde Group lowered their target price 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. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $38.00 target price (down from $42.00) on shares of Towne Bank in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.50.

Towne Bank Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of TOWN stock opened at $35.67 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.88. Towne Bank has a 1 year low of $31.91 and a 1 year high of $37.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.02 and a beta of 0.70.

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

Towne Bank Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 26th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 dividend yield of 3.1%. Towne Bank’s payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Towne Bank Profile

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.