10 Mid-Sized Banks That Look Attractive In M&A Circles

Bank of America analyst Ebrahim Poonawala recently took an in-depth look at potential buyout targets in the banking space. Bank of America’s M&A Scorecard ranks potential buyout targets based on thirteen different criteria, including social factors, bud triggers and sell triggers.

“We believe challenged revenue growth and rising burden of tech/compliance costs make the option to merge in order to derive economies of scale appealing,” Poonawala explained.

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Although slumping bank stocks have led many of the larger players to shift their spending focus to share repurchases, Poonawala believes that the attractive valuations of several potential takeover targets will be hard to resist.

He added that, even in the absence of rising rates, quality deposits are still a major factor for potential buyers.

Poonawala believes that investors should consider the strong possibility of M&A when determining their banking investment strategies.

Top Buyout Targets

Bank of America sees the following 10 bank stocks as the top buyout targets:

• Associated Banc Corp (NYSE: ASB)
• Capital Bank Financial Corp (NASDAQ: CBF)
• Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA)
• FCB Financial Holdings Inc (NYSE: FCB)
• First Horizon National Corp (NYSE: FHN)
• First Republic Bank (NYSE: FRC)
• First South Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: FSBK)
• IBERIABANK Corp (NASDAQ: IBKC)
• Prosperity Bancshares, Inc. (NYSE: PB)
• Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV)

Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.

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