Farmers National Banc slumps as Piper Sandler downgrades to 'neutral'

Farmers National Banc

05/10/2022 17:15

** Shares of lender Farmers National Banc Corp  FMNB.O 
slides 6% at $12.91 - lowest level since Dec 2020
    ** Piper Sandler cuts to "neutral" from "overweight"; cuts
PT to $14.5 from $15.5 
    **Says biggest concern about rate hikes is it might hit the
bank's tangible book value (TBV) and the tangible common equity
(TCE) ratios
    ** Brokerage notes rate hikes have hit co's tangible asset
valuation and earnings since Sept, expects Q3 rate hikes to be
further detrimental 
    ** Piper Sandler notes that rate hikes would lead to stock
trading lower than typical co's physical capital 
    ** However, brokerage believes that FMNB's fundamentals,
loan growth and interest margin still appear good
    ** Two of four brokerages rate the stock "buy" and two
"hold"; their median PT is $17.5 - Refinitiv data
    ** Including the session's losses, stock had fallen 29.8%
YTD compared with a 15.3% decline in the Nasdaq bank index
 .IXBK 
 (Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Shristi Achar A in
Bengaluru)
 ((johann.mcherian@thomsonreuters.com;
Shristi.AcharA@thomsonreuters.com))