Raymond James sees busy year for (small) bank M&A

• David Long and team aren't expecting much in way of large deals, but instead see most transactions to be for those lenders with less than $1B in assets.
• The Midwest was a particularly busy region for M&A last year, and possible targets in 2018 include Farmers Capital (NASDAQ:FFKT), Franklin Financial (NYSE:FSB), and HopFed Bancorp (NASDAQ:HFBC).
• Elsewhere, FCB Financial (NYSE:FCB) and Synovus (NYSE:SNV) look attractive.
• Source: Bloomberg