Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. Acquires 14,523 Shares of Towne Bank $TOWN

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) by 8.3% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 189,953 shares of the bank’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,523 shares during the quarter. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc.’s holdings in Towne Bank were worth $6,396,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TOWN. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Towne Bank by 32.3% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 34,996 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,197,000 after purchasing an additional 8,538 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in Towne Bank by 4.6% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 41,837 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,430,000 after purchasing an additional 1,837 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in Towne Bank by 56.6% during the first quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 381,761 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $13,052,000 after purchasing an additional 137,988 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Towne Bank by 4.7% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 157,713 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $5,392,000 after purchasing an additional 7,115 shares during the period. Finally, Jane Street Group LLC increased its position in Towne Bank by 1,220.9% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 157,411 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,382,000 after buying an additional 145,494 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on TOWN. Zacks Research raised Towne Bank from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday. Weiss Ratings downgraded Towne Bank from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “market perform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (down from $42.00) on shares of Towne Bank in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, Hovde Group reduced their target price on shares of Towne Bank from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.50.

Towne Bank Stock Down 0.7%

TOWN opened at $36.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.41 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $34.87 and its 200 day moving average is $34.81. Towne Bank has a fifty-two week low of $31.91 and a fifty-two week high of $37.86.

Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. The business had revenue of $247.62 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $274.02 million. Towne Bank had a return on equity of 9.91% and a net margin of 13.51%.Towne Bank’s revenue for the quarter was up 34.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.68 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Towne Bank will post 3.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Towne Bank Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 10th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 26th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.1%. This is a positive change from Towne Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 26th. Towne Bank’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.57%.

Towne Bank Company 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.