Arizona State Retirement System Increases Stock Holdings in TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN)

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) by 7.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 20,941 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,411 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in TowneBank were worth $571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of TowneBank by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 135,208 shares of the bank’s stock worth $3,687,000 after purchasing an additional 1,055 shares during the period. Innealta Capital LLC purchased a new position in TowneBank during the 2nd quarter valued at $62,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in TowneBank by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 504,926 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $13,769,000 after acquiring an additional 21,143 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank boosted its holdings in TowneBank by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 50,107 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after acquiring an additional 5,276 shares during the period. Finally, SummerHaven Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in TowneBank by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. SummerHaven Investment Management LLC now owns 31,187 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $850,000 after acquiring an additional 569 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TOWN has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded TowneBank from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on TowneBank from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th.

TowneBank Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ TOWN opened at $33.84 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.83. The firm has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a PE ratio of 16.84 and a beta of 0.89. TowneBank has a twelve month low of $21.63 and a twelve month high of $34.90.

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.57 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $174.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.20 million. TowneBank had a return on equity of 7.56% and a net margin of 15.33%. TowneBank’s revenue was down 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.52 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that TowneBank will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

TowneBank Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 30th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 30th. TowneBank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.75%.

TowneBank Profile

TowneBank provides retail and commercial banking services for individuals, commercial enterprises, and professionals. The company operates through three segments: Banking, Realty, and Insurance. It accepts various deposits, including demand deposits, savings accounts, money rate savings, certificates of deposit, and individual retirement accounts.