Bridgeway Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN)

Bridgeway Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) by 90.1% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 34,048 shares of the bank’s stock after selling 310,122 shares during the quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC’s holdings in TowneBank were worth $1,160,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TOWN. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in TowneBank by 16.1% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 361,960 shares of the bank’s stock worth $11,966,000 after acquiring an additional 50,149 shares in the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in shares of TowneBank by 31.5% during the 4th quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 34,790 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,185,000 after purchasing an additional 8,335 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of TowneBank by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,482,171 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $254,843,000 after buying an additional 49,970 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in TowneBank by 258.5% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,434 shares of the bank’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 1,034 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in TowneBank by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 845,335 shares of the bank’s stock worth $28,792,000 after buying an additional 6,285 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.99% of the company’s stock.

TowneBank Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ TOWN opened at $33.84 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $33.14 and its 200 day moving average is $34.54. TowneBank has a 52 week low of $25.70 and a 52 week high of $38.28. The company has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.74 and a beta of 0.79.

TowneBank (NASDAQ:TOWN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 23rd. The bank reported $0.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.61 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $190.04 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $191.29 million. TowneBank had a net margin of 15.77% and a return on equity of 7.77%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.48 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that TowneBank will post 2.6 earnings per share for the current year.

TowneBank Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 31st. TowneBank’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 42.37%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on TOWN. Stephens restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $41.00 price objective on shares of TowneBank in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Hovde Group upped their price target on shares of TowneBank from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 28th.

TowneBank Company 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.