Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Brokerages

Key Points

• Associated Banc-Corp has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from nine brokerages, with a 12-month price target averaging $27.78.
• Recent analyst ratings included upgrades from Robert W. Baird and Wells Fargo, with their price objectives raised to $28.00 and $30.00 respectively.
• The bank reported earnings of $0.65 per share for the last quarter, exceeding expectations and announcing a quarterly dividend of $0.23 per share.

Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Hold" by the nine brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $27.7778.

ASB has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Associated Banc from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Associated Banc from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Associated Banc from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Associated Banc from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Associated Banc from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Monday, July 28th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Associated Banc

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Associated Banc by 2.8% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 379,996 shares of the bank's stock valued at $8,561,000 after buying an additional 10,448 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Associated Banc by 11.6% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,251 shares of the bank's stock valued at $118,000 after buying an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Associated Banc by 38.0% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 4,072 shares of the bank's stock valued at $90,000 after buying an additional 1,122 shares during the last quarter. Moody Aldrich Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Associated Banc in the first quarter valued at about $1,842,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Associated Banc during the first quarter worth about $541,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.98% of the company's stock.

Associated Banc Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of ASB traded down $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $26.97. The company had a trading volume of 1,870,961 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,289,944. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $25.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.84. Associated Banc has a 1 year low of $18.32 and a 1 year high of $28.18.

Associated Banc (NYSE:ASB - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The bank reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $366.98 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $362.78 million. Associated Banc had a return on equity of 8.86% and a net margin of 5.79%.During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Associated Banc will post 2.43 EPS for the current year.

Associated Banc Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.23 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 2nd. This represents a $0.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. Associated Banc's payout ratio is 119.48%.

About Associated Banc

Associated Banc-Corp, a bank holding company, provides various banking and nonbanking products to individuals and businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. The company offers lending solutions, including commercial loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction loans, letters of credit, leasing, asset based lending and equipment finance, loan syndications products, residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, personal and installment loans, auto finance and business loans, and business lines of credit.