Bank of New York Mellon Corp Acquires 8,504 Shares of Towne Bank $TOWN

Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) by 1.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 527,204 shares of the bank’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,504 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.70% of Towne Bank worth $18,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Towne Bank by 1.1% during the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,393,296 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $150,207,000 after buying an additional 48,623 shares during the last quarter. Royce & Associates LP raised its position in shares of Towne Bank by 7.1% in the 1st quarter. Royce & Associates LP now owns 576,042 shares of the bank’s stock worth $19,695,000 after purchasing an additional 37,989 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Towne Bank in the 1st quarter worth about $15,584,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Towne Bank by 56.6% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 381,761 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,052,000 after purchasing an additional 137,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Towne Bank by 12.9% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 204,488 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $6,991,000 after purchasing an additional 23,327 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on TOWN shares. Hovde Group lifted their target price on shares of Towne Bank from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Towne Bank from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Towne Bank in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Towne Bank currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.00.

Towne Bank Stock Performance

Shares of TOWN stock opened at $33.22 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $34.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.73. Towne Bank has a 52 week low of $29.43 and a 52 week high of $38.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.49 billion, a PE ratio of 14.83 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

Towne Bank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 22nd. The bank reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.08. Towne Bank had a net margin of 15.69% and a return on equity of 9.86%. The company had revenue of $215.67 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $222.28 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.58 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Towne Bank will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Towne Bank Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 29th were paid a $0.27 dividend. This represents a $1.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 29th. Towne Bank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.21%.

Towne Bank 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.