Stephens analyst Brody Preston initiated coverage of TowneBank with an Equal Weight rating and $28 price target. The analyst likes TowneBank's "solid base" of non-interest bearing deposits, but he expects below peer profitability levels and says the shares are trading ahead of more profitable peers.

Reports Q1 revenue $167.1M, consensus $169.68M. Reports Q1 tangible book value per share $20.31. Reports Q1 net charge-offsm.02%. Reports Q1 CET1 capital ratio 12.2%. "TowneBank had a solid start to the year with our continued focus on maintaining healthy levels of capital and liquidity. While we continue to see migration to interest-bearing accounts, it was encouraging to generate overall annualized deposit growth of nearly 7% for the first quarter, demonstrating the durability of the TowneBank operating mode. Our ongoing growth strategy for our ancillary lines of business, including insurance and property management, continues to serve as a partial hedge to offset rising deposit costs," said G. Robert Aston executive chairman.