Janney upgrades ChoiceOne Financial to Buy after Fentura deal

As previously reported, Janney Montgomery Scott upgraded ChoiceOne Financial (COFS) to Buy from Neutral with a $38 fair value estimate after the company announced the acquisition of Fentura Financial (FETM) on March 1. The deal adds “significant scale,” increasing total assets to north of $4.4B, expanding the company’s footprint in eastern Michigan, and improving ChoiceOne’s deposit market share, the analyst tells investors. The firm, which believes ChoiceOne will look to continue to build out its franchise in the near-term while also “staying open to any reasonable offer given its shareholder oriented management team,” thinks the Fentura deal makes the bank a “more desirable acquisition candidate given the scarcity of larger, high-performing Michigan franchises,” the analyst added.