I enjoy investing in and writing about regional banks because these banks' key metrics, such as their loan and deposit growth, are often simply more associated with the performance of their underlying stock versus their larger counterparts. One of the names I have liked for some time is Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (NASDAQ:HBAN). The stock has been hammered in the last month or so, a huge turn-around from when the surpassed my original price target in 2015. Recall that I had previously set an $11.50 price target on the name, and assigned a buy rating following a recent acquisition. I then reassessed the company last quarter and continued to believe this stock would surpass $11.50, but I have to say that I did not amend my price target, nor did I expect such a significant selloff. So what to should you do now?
Well, as you may have seen the company just announced its Q4 2015 results this morning. This quarter was rather decent and surpassed expectation. It wasn't a fantastic quarter, but was solid. Some of the data were as strong and some I would like to have seen perform better. The company reported a top line beat and a bottom line the met expectations. Huntington reported net income of $178 million, a 9% increase from Q4 2014. Earnings per share came in at $0.21 for Q4 2015, up 11% from the year-ago quarter, and was up $0.03 from Q3 2015. Revenues were higher year-over-year to $777 million, up 8.8%. That said, revenues beat versus estimates coming in $15.8 million ahead of consensus.
I love to see top and bottom beats, so with a beat on the top line and meeting of estimates on the bottom line I am please. The key here is that they are only part of the story. You
