Sandy Spring (SASR) Acquires WashingtonFirst (WFBI)

On Tuesday, Sandy Spring Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:SASR) and WashingtonFirst Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:WFBI) announced the merger of their subsidiaries, Sandy Spring Bank and WashingtonFirst Bank. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

The combined company will have approximately $7.25 million assets with Sandy Spring and WashingtonFirst shareholders owning about 67.8% and 32.2%, respectively.However, the deal is subject to shareholders’ and legal approvals.

Per the terms, shareholders of WashingtonFirst will receive 0.8713 shares of Sandy Spring for each share they hold. However, if the average share price of Sandy Spring during a specified period of time is above $50.15 or below $37.07 per share, then the above mentioned exchange basis may change.

Also, the Chairman, President and two other members from the board of directors of the acquired company will join Sandy Spring’s board.

Since the announcement of the deal, shares of Sandy Spring have lost about 1.2%. However, this merger should bode well for the combined company, as it will be capable ofproviding a wide variety of products and services,and catering to more than 60,000 individuals and about 30,000 local businesses.

Shares of Sandy Spring have gained 9.9% in the last six months, outperforming the Zacks categorized Banks - Northeast industry’s decline of nearly 1%.

Currently, Sandy Spring sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Some other stocks in the finance space worth considering include The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) and Northern Trust Corporation (NASDAQ:NTRS) , carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

PNC Financial’s current-year earnings estimates were revised 1.4% upward, over the last 30 days. Further, its shares increased 33.4%, in the last one year.

Northern Trust witnessed a1.1% upward earnings estimates revision for the current year, in the past 30 days. Moreover, its shares gained 20.8% in the last one year.

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