UPDATE: Jefferies Upgrading Huntington Bancshares To Buy (HBAN)

Jefferies & Co. is upgrading shares of Huntington Bancshares HBAN to Buy and it has a $8 price target. In a note to clients, Jefferies writes, "HBAN has underperformed after a strong early '11 run, and risk/reward looks attractive again with no major changes to fundamentals. Shares trade at 1.45x tangible book and 9.5x normalized EPS (vs 1.65x and 10x for the group, respectively). We believe HBAN's long-term 13-14% return on tang. equity potential warrants a valuation closer to the group average." Shares of HBAN are up 11 cents in pre-market trading to $6.75, a gain of 1.66%.