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

Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. grew its holdings in Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) by 8.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 189,953 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,523 shares during the period. Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. owned about 0.24% of Towne Bank worth $6,396,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of TOWN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Towne Bank by 5.8% during 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Towne Bank by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,339,745 shares of the bank’s stock worth $144,819,000 after buying an additional 17,143 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Towne Bank by 1.0% in the 4th 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 raised its position in Towne Bank by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,811,213 shares of the bank’s stock worth $60,448,000 after buying an additional 12,672 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. lifted its stake in Towne Bank by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 1,515,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $50,562,000 after acquiring an additional 23,069 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

Towne Bank Stock Down 0.7%

Towne Bank stock opened at $36.45 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $2.88 billion, a PE 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. Towne Bank has a one year low of $31.91 and a one year high of $37.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $34.87 and a 200 day moving average of $34.81.

Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The bank reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. The company had revenue of $247.62 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 34.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.68 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Towne Bank will post 3.12 EPS for the current 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 is a boost from Towne Bank’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 26th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.1%. Towne Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 56.57%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on TOWN. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Towne Bank from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “market perform” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (down from $42.00) on shares of Towne Bank in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Towne Bank from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Hovde Group lowered their price objective on shares of Towne Bank from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Towne Bank has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.50.

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.