Baird believes that shares of Zions Bancorp have been unduly punished. Analyst David George upgraded the regional bank to outperform from neutral. George’s $65 price target implies an upside of nearly 39% from Zions’ Thursday close. Shares of Zions plunged 13% on Thursday alone after the bank said it would write off $50 million because of two loans taking out by fraudulent borrowers. The incident put the bank’s borrowing practices under more scrutiny amid rising fears that lending practices on Wall Street have grown too lax. ZION YTD mountain ZION YTD chart However, in a Friday note George called the $1 billion market capitalization wipeout “excessive.” The analyst added that the fraudulent nature of the borrowers hints at a unique situation rather than an underlying systematic issue. “The ~$1B+ decline in ZION’s market cap likely reflects fears surrounding contagion risk and liquidity concerns. While we understand the sell-off to some degree, the magnitude is overdone from our perspective,” he elaborated. “To be clear, a $50M fraud loss is a clear negative, and we would expect the stock to be weak on it, but a $1B cap reduction seems more than excessive to us and we feel like the panic selling provides a great opportunity to buy ZION shares here.” At the same, time, the analyst applauded Zions’ “solid” fundamental trends. He noted that its track record of strong underwriting quality should help prevent further losses. “Good underwriting relationships and disciplined loan growth over the past few years suggest lower credit risk from our perspective, creating a buying opportunity following today’s market reaction,” he wrote. Zions shares were flat in the premarket. Most analysts covering the regional bank are on the sidelines. LSEG data shows 17 of 24 rate it a hold. ( Learn the best 2026 strategies from inside the NYSE with Josh Brown and others at CNBC PRO Live. Tickets and info here . )
