Oppenheimer Comments on Southeast Banks

Oppenheimer commented on the Southeast banks. In a research report published today, which was intended to provide "an overview of the Southeast banking industry, including current trading valuations, company news and fundamentals, price performance, loan growth and merger & acquisition trends," Oppenheimer stressed that the Southeast bank stocks are down on average 20% in the past 12 months, compared to a 9% decrease in the S&P Regional Bank index. Oppenheimer also pointed out that the average total loans declined by 0.9% in Q1 2011, after reporting small gains in 2010. This is considered to be a temporary setback, however, as banks expect a pickup in activity in the second half of the year, due in part to healthy pipelines for loans. The five best-performing Southeast bank stocks year-to-date are Village B&T Financial VBFC, FNB United Corp FNBN, Bank of Granite GRAN, Crescent Financial CRFN, and Southern Community Financial SCMF. On Wednesday, FNB United Corp lost 1.65% to close the day at $0.60, while Bank of Granite lost 3.09% to end the day at $0.94. Southern Community Financial was more successful, adding 6.88% to its value to close at $2.02. Wednesday's closing values for Crescent Financial and Village B&T Financial were $3.90 and $2.90, respectfully.
Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
Comments
Loading...
date
ticker
name
Price Target
Upside/Downside
Recommendation
Firm
Posted In: Analyst ColorAnalyst RatingsFinancialsRegional Banks
Benzinga simplifies the market for smarter investing

Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.

Join Now: Free!