Sterne Agee Maintains Ameris Bancorp's Buy Rating

According to a research report published earlier today, Sterne Agee reiterated its Buy rating on Ameris Bancorp

as its ninth FDIC-assisted deal confirmed the belief that asset quality will be aggressively dealt with and profitability materially improved. Sterne Agee said in the report, “Our price target remains $13, which is based on our DCF/NPV analysis (12.5x 2013E EPS, discounted by 11%). We estimate that the FDICassisted purchase of Central Bank of Georgia (“Central”) will result in a pretax bargain purchase gain of ~$23 million (~$15 million after-tax) and a recurring annual EPS benefit of $0.10-$0.15, once the systems conversion is completed, assuming an ROA of 1.00%-1.25%.” Ameris Bancorp closed Friday at $11.24.