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Shares of First Citizens BancShares , the regional bank known for acquiring Silicon Valley Bank’s assets after its failure set off an industry crisis in March, could continue to climb, according to KBW. Analyst Brady Gailey reiterated his outperform rating and increased his price target to $1,500 from $950. Gailey’s new price target implies the stock could rally 27.6% over the next year from Wednesday’s close. “After being unknown and under-owned to most of the institutional investor community for decades, we believe the more investors get to know the new FCNCA, the more they’ll like what they see, which should be good for future valuation,” he said in a note to clients Wednesday. On Wednesday, First Citizens reported $20.09 in earnings per share excluding items for the first quarter, less than the $22.29 anticipated by analysts polled by StreetAccount. Deposits totaled $140.05 billion, an increase of more than $50 billion from the end of 2022 the bank said was due in part to the SVB acquisition. The company raised its full-year profit guidance to between $150 and $161 per share including the earnings accretive from the acquisition. Gailey, meanwhile, raised his expectations for earnings per share to $164 from $90 for 2023, and to $180 from $94 for 2024. “As FCNCA said on its 1Q23 call, SVB was a home run of a deal for FCNCA,” he said. “We are increasing EPS estimates dramatically and they are still conservative in our opinion.” The stock is up about 55% since the start of the year, making it one of the few regional banks to avoid a sell-off on the year. Since March 24, shares are up a whopping 102%. By comparison, the SPDR S & P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) has tumbled 36.9% since 2023 began. FCNCA KRE YTD mountain First Citizens BancShares vs. the KRE — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.
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