Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Associated Banc-Corp Completes Acquisition of Whitnell & Co.

Read MoreHide Full Article

As part of its efforts to diversify business operations, Associated Banc-Corp (ASB - Free Report) has completed the acquisition of Whitnell & Co. Oak Brook, IL-based Whitnell & Co. is a wealth management and multi-family office services company.

Whitnell, with nearly 25 employees, has roughly $1 billion in assets under management (AUM). Although Whitnell will be integrated as part of Associated Banc-Corp’s Private Client & Institutional Services group, it will retain its brand name, offices and employees.

The acquisition is expected to strengthen Associated Banc-Corp’s tax, charitable and estate planning services, mainly for families.

Apart from beefing up Associated Banc-Corp’s business lines, the transaction is projected to increase its AUM and run-rate revenues by approximately 10%. Though the deal will have no material impact on this year’s earnings, it will be accretive to the company’s 2018 earnings.

Philip B. Flynn, the president and CEO of Associated Banc-Corp said, “The acquisition of Whitnell aligns with our continued focus on improving the customer experience and strategy to drive shareholder value through a diverse set of specialty businesses. With the addition of Whitnell, we can offer a unique set of additional planning, asset management and related services to high net worth clients across our markets.”

Associated Banc-Corp shares have gained 24.5% over the past year, underperforming the industry’s growth of 32.7%. Nonetheless, we believe the price performance will likely improve in the coming days, given the company’s fundamental strengths and synergies from the deal.



With a strong liquidity position and stable balance sheet, Associated Banc-Corp is expected to continue with its inorganic growth strategy in the coming days.

Currently, Associated Banc-Corp carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A few better-ranked stocks in the same industry are Old National Bancorp (ONB - Free Report) , UMB Financial Corporation (UMBF - Free Report) and Wintrust Financial Corporation (WTFC - Free Report) .

Old National Bancorp’s earnings estimates for 2017 have been revised nearly 1% upward, over the last 60 days. Further in the past year, its shares have jumped more than 32%. It currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

UMB Financial’s Zacks Consensus Estimate for current-year earnings has remained stable, over the past 60 days. Also, its share price has jumped nearly 27% over the last 12 months. It carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Wintrust Financial also carries a Zacks Rank #2. Its earnings estimates for the current year have remained stable over the past 60 days, while its shares have gained nearly 42% in the past year.

Can Hackers Put Money INTO Your Portfolio?

Earlier this month, credit bureau Equifax announced a massive data breach affecting 2 out of every 3 Americans. The cybersecurity industry is expanding quickly in response to this and similar events. But some stocks are better investments than others.

Zacks has just released Cybersecurity! An Investor’s Guide to help Zacks.com readers make the most of the $170 billion per year investment opportunity created by hackers and other threats. It reveals 4 stocks worth looking into right away.

Download the new report now>>

Published in