Seeking Alpha: Eagle Bancorp Flying High

Eagle Bancorp (NASDAQ:EGBN) has done well since I spotlighted the bank as a Top Idea back in mid-2013, with the shares up more than 90% in that time and basically matching super-performer Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ:OZRK). Like Bank of the Ozarks, Eagle is now in that tough grey zone where I love the growth and love management's strategy, but I don't love the valuation. I am generally loathe to tell investors to get out of a good growth story just because of valuation, and that's the case here, but I don't see enough valuation upside to recommend it as a new investment.

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Eagle Bancorp Flying High

Seeking Alpha: For Sandy Spring Bancorp, It Looks Like Buy Or Be Bought

Banking regulators seem to be trying to achieve a delicate balance between a banking system that is too consolidated among a small group of giant institutions ("too big to fail") and a system that is too fragmented to run efficiently and provide high levels of service. While I believe that regulators will be loath to let the top 10 (or perhaps the top 20) banks get much larger, I also believe they'd like to see even more competition coming from the next tier. To that end, Sandy Spring Bancorp (SASR) could have an interesting future in the Mid-Atlantic region as either a growth-by-M&A story or as a target itself.

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For Sandy Spring Bancorp, It Looks Like Buy Or Be Bought