Heritage Commerce downgraded to Equal Weight at Stephens on valuation

As previously reported, Stephens downgraded Heritage Commerce to Equal Weight from Overweight with an unchanged price target of $10. While the firm continues to favor Heritage’s “impressive” deposit franchise relative to peers and “commend the company for remaining diligent in managing excess liquidity over the past several years,” its downgrade is “predominantly valuation driven” as it sees modest downside to Street forecasts and anticipates some continued net interest margin pressure as deposit cost increases are fully digested.