Sterne Agee Maintains Buy on Northwest Bancshares

Sterne Agee is out with its report today on Northwest Bancshares

, maintaining Buy. In a note to clients, Sterne Agee writes, "Northwest completed its second step transaction in December 2009 by raising $689 million and increasing its TCE/TA ratio to 14.5%. Since the completion of the second step, the company has continued to deploy its excess capital through share repurchases and modest organic loan growth." At the time of posting, shares of NWBI were trading pre-market at $12.81, up 5.09% from Monday's close.