Oppenheimer Maintains Outperform on Western Alliance Bancorporation (WAL)

Oppenheimer maintains its Outperform rating on Western Alliance Bancorporation WAL as it expects another quarter of growth. In a note to clients, Oppenheimer writes, "Western Alliance remains one of our top small-cap bank ideas, with a price target of $8.50. We expect to see another quarter of loan growth in 4Q10 and meaningful earnings leverage in '11 as credit trends continue to strengthen. The company could be an early adopter of the new Small Business Jobs Act lending program, which by 2Q11 would reduce the interest rate on the company's TARP ($140M) from 5% to 1%, adding ~$0.07 in annualized earnings." WAL closed yesterday at $6.46.