Seacoast Banking Set For Profitability Ramp, Says KBW

In addition, the ongoing shareholder unrest may result in a possible sale, which only helps shareholders given the bank's significant franchise value.

"[W]hile we believe SBCF is making significant progress in earning its independence the potential of a sale also boosts the shares' value proposition in our view," analyst Jefferson Harralson wrote in a note.

On the fundamentals front, Seacoast has been repeating its guidance for $1.00 in 2016 EPS, which implies an average of $0.29 in EPS per quarter in the next two quarters.

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"The $0.29 level should also get SBCF very close to a 1 percent ROA. Importantly, the $0.29 level in Q3 would put SBCF on pace to $1.20 or higher in 2017 EPS, which would represent 25 percent growth over 2016," Harralson highlighted.

Harralson, who expects EPS of $0.98 for 2016 and $1.23 for 2017, also raised his price target to $20 from $18. The $20 target is 14.5x his $1.38 2018 EPS estimate and a reasonable 1.8x year end 2017 TBV estimate.

"Additionally, SBCF is trading at discounts of 12.9 percent on 2017 EPS, 16.2 percent on 2018 EPS, and 6.4 percent on TBV versus averages for Southeastern peers ($2.5–10 billion in assets)," Harralson added.

At time of writing, shares of Seacoast had risen 5 percent on the day to $17.30.

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