Raymond James raised the firm's price target on Merchants Bancorp to $51 from $49 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. Merchants Bancorp delivered a challenging Q1, as higher interest rates pressured fee income and a smaller balance sheet weighed on net interest income, leading to a PPNR miss and noisy credit trends, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Despite near-term headwinds and reduced EPS estimates, the broader investment thesis remains supported by improving credit costs, expected fee recovery, efficiency gains, and continued tangible book value growth, with the stock still trading at a relative discount to peers, the firm says.
