Initiations
Tyler Stafford from Stephens Inc. initiated coverage of Brentwood, Tenn.-based Reliant Bancorp Inc.'s stock with an "equal-weight" rating and a price target of $24.
Stafford wrote in his report that Reliant is in an "attractive" middle Tennessee market, allowing robust growth. With its market share in Nashville, new lender hires and recent expansion into Chattanooga, Stafford expects the growth to continue. He also expects the bank to announce acquisitions.
Given the bank's CD portfolio representing 52% of total deposits, it could see relatively strong net interest margin performance despite the lowering interest rate environment, wrote Stafford.
However, based on the current premium valuation at 13.6x his 2020 EPS estimate and below-peer profitability of 0.93% return on assets, he initiated coverage with an "equal-weight" rating.
His EPS estimates for the company are $1.45 for 2019 and $1.65 for 2020.
----------------------------
Jon Arfstrom from RBC Capital Markets initiated coverage of Beverly Hills, Calif.-based PacWest Bancorp's stock with an "outperform" rating and a price target of $40.
Arfstrom wrote that he expects steady loan growth based on the variety of businesses PacWest operates, including community banking, venture banking and national lending groups. PacWest has also seen high returns of capital to shareholders and Arfstrom expects that to continue, calling the 7% dividend yield "attractive." Risks to the rating include a slowdown in the economy, he wrote.
His EPS estimates for the company are $3.72 for 2019 and $3.70 for 2020.
