According to an article on thestreet.com, the morning of Thursday, March 7th, late on the prior day Keefe, Bruyette & Woods equity research analyst Collyn Gilbert upgraded Westbury, New York-based thrift New York Community Bancorp, Inc. (NYCB) from "market perform" to "outperform," and increased her price target on the shares to $15.00 from $13.00. She believes that an acquisition would be a catalyst for a higher stock price, and states that her price target increase reflects "a 60% probability that New York Community is able to execute an accretive acquisition."
On March 6th, NYCB closed at $13.31. Why does Gilbert think that an acquisition would add $2 or so of value? Because NYCB trades at a high...