U.S. Bancorp
USB,
was up by 3.3% after B of A analyst Ebrahim H. Poonawala upgraded the bank to buy from neutral and raised his price target by $2 to $40 a share on Tuesday. Poonawala said the company offers franchise quality and under-appreciated defensibility in its balance sheet. “We believe investor focus on capital build has distracted attention away from what is among the highest quality franchises in the U.S. banking industry,” Poonawala said. “We view USB as an outperformer during the next credit cycle,” he said. The company also offers below average exposure to vulnerable sectors such as commercial real estate, with 2% of it loans in office space. He cut his 2023 earning estimate for U.S. Bancorp to $4.35 from $4.65 a share and also reduced his 2024 profit estimate to $4.10 a share from $4.65 a share.
