Oppenheimer Downgrades Wintrust Financial (WTFC) to Perform; Catalyst Revealed; Estimates Too High

July 9, 2012 9:31 AM EDT Send to a Friend
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Price: $37.50 --0%

Rating Summary:
    3 Buy, 9 Hold, 0 Sell

Rating Trend: = Flat

Today's Overall Ratings:
    Up: 0 | Down: 0 | New: 6
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Oppenheimer downgraded Wintrust Financial (NASDAQ: WTFC) from Outperform to Perform.

Analyst, Terry McEvoy, said, "WTFC has appreciated 27% in ’12 versus an 11% gain at the Nasdaq Bank Index. We feel the accretive acquisition of Macquarie Premium Funding Inc. (Canadian insurance premium funding unit of Macquarie Group) and a rotation out of certain higher-growth small-cap banks with earnings risk related to the drop in interest rates (i.e., Signature Banc and Prosperity Banc) has been the catalyst behind the move in stock price at WTFC YTD...The Macquarie deal closed on June 8th and should have a positive impact on loan growth and earnings in 2H12. A major reason behind out downgrade and/or unwillingness to raise our price target is that we believe consensus estimates are too high and at risk of coming down following 2Q12 earnings. Our ’12 EPS estimate is $1.80 (consensus $2.01) and our ’13 EPS estimate is $2.15 (consensus is $2.46)."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Wintrust Financial click here. For more ratings news on Wintrust Financial click here.

Shares of Wintrust Financial closed at $35.96 yesterday, with a 52 week range of $24.30-$36.85.


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