Downgrade
* Hovde Group analyst Joseph Fenech downgraded Sussex Bancorp's stock rating to "market perform" from "outperform" on valuation.
The analyst wrote that the Rockaway, N.J.-based company's stock is up by 124% since the initiation of its coverage by Hovde two years ago.
Sussex's closing stock price on March 2 was $29.60. Fenech raised the price target to $33 from $31.50.
Transferred coverage
* B. Riley FBR transferred coverage of "buy"-rated Flagstar Bancorp Inc. and "neutral"-rated HomeStreet Inc. to Steve Moss from Jessica Levi-Ribner, due to "a reallocation of resources."
Moss maintained Troy, Mich.-based Flagstar's price target at $42 and Seattle-based HomeStreet's target at $30.
Notable reiterations
* Joseph Gladue of Merion Capital Group wrote that Old Line Bancshares Inc.'s acquisition of Bay Bancorp Inc. is expected to close in mid-April.
With the growing importance of funding loan growth, the number of attractive in-footprint targets for Old Line is "getting more limited," wrote Gladue. The analyst suggested areas in central Maryland or southern Pennsylvania as places for deposit-rich potential partners.
Gladue has a rating of "outperform" on the Bowie, Md.-based company's stock with a price target of $35.
* Daniel Cardenas of Raymond James wrote Glacier Bancorp Inc. is expected to remain acquisitive. Glacier's acquisitions, however, of Inter-Mountain Bancorp. Inc. and Columbine Capital Corp. are likely to move its M&A activity "to the back burner as the company focuses on digesting its recently consummated acquisitions."
Further acquisitions remain a possibility for the Kalispell, Mont.-based company, but are not likely to occur until the end of 2018 or early 2019, the analyst wrote.
Cardenas maintained the rating of "market perform" for Glacier Bancorp.
* Sandler O'Neill & Partners' Frank Schiraldi describes OceanFirst Financial Corp.'s "further bank M&A as unlikely in [the] near-term."
Regarding OceanFirst's future M&A prospects, the analyst does not "expect anything to be announced while OceanFirst is focused on integration of Sun Bancorp Inc. to take place in early June."
The likelihood of OceanFirst's next whole bank M&A deal is expected to be low over the next 12 to 18 months, according to the analyst.
Schiraldi has a rating of "buy" on the Toms River, N.J.-based company's stock with a target price of $31.
