TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) Shares Down 4.8% – Should You Sell?

Shares of TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) fell 4.8% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $32.07 and last traded at $32.33. 59,382 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 76% from the average session volume of 249,530 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.97.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on TOWN. StockNews.com upgraded TowneBank from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, July 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded TowneBank from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd.

TowneBank Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $2.44 billion, a PE ratio of 16.18 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.64 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $30.15.

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The bank reported $0.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $258.86 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $179.80 million. TowneBank had a return on equity of 7.56% and a net margin of 15.33%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that TowneBank will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TowneBank Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 11th. Investors of record on Monday, September 30th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 30th. TowneBank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 49.75%.

Institutional Trading of TowneBank

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in TowneBank by 2.9% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,269,588 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $116,431,000 after acquiring an additional 119,459 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in TowneBank by 0.3% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 784,909 shares of the bank’s stock worth $21,404,000 after buying an additional 2,676 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in TowneBank by 1.3% in the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 638,241 shares of the bank’s stock worth $17,405,000 after buying an additional 8,100 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in TowneBank by 4.4% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 504,926 shares of the bank’s stock worth $13,769,000 after buying an additional 21,143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in TowneBank by 8.2% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 196,880 shares of the bank’s stock worth $5,524,000 after buying an additional 14,875 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

About TowneBank

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.