Insider Selling: Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) Director Sells 2,830 Shares of Stock

Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE:ASB) Director John B. Williams sold 2,830 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.09, for a total transaction of $71,004.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 66,915 shares in the company, valued at $1,678,897.35. This represents a 4.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Associated Banc Price Performance

Associated Banc stock traded up $0.41 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $25.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 226,156 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,478,540. Associated Banc-Corp has a fifty-two week low of $19.76 and a fifty-two week high of $28.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.86 and a current ratio of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $24.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.94.

Associated Banc (NYSE:ASB) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The bank reported $0.57 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.04. Associated Banc had a return on equity of 8.24% and a net margin of 5.15%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Associated Banc-Corp will post 2.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Associated Banc Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.23 dividend. This represents a $0.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. Associated Banc’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 116.46%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Associated Banc

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of Associated Banc by 221.6% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 163,003 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $3,511,000 after buying an additional 112,323 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Associated Banc by 3.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,230,340 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $177,282,000 after buying an additional 261,877 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Associated Banc by 11,595.3% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 76,370 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $1,825,000 after buying an additional 75,717 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Associated Banc by 315.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 540,057 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $12,907,000 after buying an additional 410,118 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Associated Banc by 15.4% in the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 101,591 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $2,428,000 after buying an additional 13,521 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.98% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on ASB shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Associated Banc from $29.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Associated Banc from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Barclays increased their price objective on Associated Banc from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Associated Banc from $26.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $28.00 price objective on shares of Associated Banc in a report on Friday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and nine have assigned a hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.00.

Associated Banc Company Profile

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.