UPDATE: Sterne Agee Reiterates Hilltop Holdings at Buy Following 10-K Release

Sterne Agee maintained Hilltop Holdings

with a Buy rating and a $16.50 price target. Sterne Agee analyst Brett Rabatin wrote, "We continue to believe HTH's valuation should migrate closer to Texas bank peers over the next several quarters. Visibility of earning power should be higher in 1Q13 and is a primary catalyst in our view. Despite some concern about mortgage bank earnings, we consider HTH particularly attractive in a bank stock market of 13-14x FY14 estimates for SMID banks vs. 9x for HTH." Hilltop Holdings closed at $13.11 on Friday.