Piper Jaffray upgraded Independent Bank to Overweight with a $40 price target citing the stock's valuation discount to Texas peers.

Piper Sandler downgraded Independent Bank to Underweight from Neutral with a price target of $38, down from $48. The bank's deposit costs were up another 19 basis points in Q1 and the expected net interest margin inflection was pushed out another quarter, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm believes Independent Bank "looks poised to underperform peers" from an overall profitability perspective. It thinks the shares will lag over the next 12 months until investors get some certainty into a Q4 of 2025 run-rate and the 2026 earnings potential of the franchise.

Reports Q1 NII $103.0M vs. $127.9M last year. "For the first quarter, we maintained exceptional credit quality while continuing to reprice our maturing fixed-rate loans upward. While growth was seasonally slow during the first quarter, we were able to reduce our borrowings to the lowest level in over a year and grow our total capital and TCE ratios. This positions us well to capitalize on new opportunities such as our expansion into the San Antonio, Texas, market, which gained momentum this quarter when we opened our first full-service branch there on March 6th," said Independent Bank Group Chairman & CEO David R. Brooks. "I remain very encouraged by the discipline of our teams across Texas and Colorado as we execute our strategy to win business and serve our communities across four of the strongest metropolitan markets in the country."