UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Reiterates Overweight Rating, Raises PT on Zions Bancorporation

In a report published Monday, J.P. Morgan & Co. reiterated its Overweight rating on Zions Bancorporation

, and slightly raised its price target from $23.50 to $24.00. J.P. Morgan noted, “In our view, just about every item that has detracted from the company's EPS and TBV over the past two years, including higher credit costs, layers of cost added to the capital structure, and CDO valuations deteriorating, is likely to continue reversing course over the next two years. The item likely to remain a pressure point near term is net interest margin, but this pressure should start to abate by mid-2013. Although quarterly loan growth in the $400-$500 million range would be sufficient to fully mitigate NIM pressure, this is an unlikely near-term target given that overall loan demand remains relatively weak among small businesses. Over the next two years, as the story moves away from one of a relatively complex regional bank in the direction of a relatively simple-to-understand spread lender, we see ZION shares outperforming those of peers given the opportunity for a simultaneous boost to EPS and TBV as well as the multiple that the market applies to each of these metrics.” Zions Bancorporation closed on Friday at $21.98.