UPDATE: Compass Point Research & Trading Upgrades Huntington Bancshares to Buy, Raises PT

In a report published Friday, Compass Point Research & Trading upgraded its rating on Huntington Bancshares HBAN from Neutral to Buy, and raised its price target from $6.00 to $8.00. Compass Point noted, “Following 4Q12 earnings, we upgrade our rating on the shares of HBAN to Buy from Neutral and raise our price target to $8 from $6. Concerns regarding NIM compression, NII decline, pressure from the mortgage banking segment and expense ratios appear more than priced into the stock and we expect core results to be repeatable. 4Q12 EPS of $0.19 beat consensus by $0.02 and the 2013 outlook improved. Driving the 4Q13 beat was stronger than expected NIM, loan growth and mortgage banking income. We estimate core EPS of $0.18, still $0.01 ahead of consensus. Our new $8 price target represents 12x our 2014 EPS estimates and a multiple of 1.08x YE14 our BVPS estimate of $7.39.” Huntington Bancshares closed on Thursday at $6.50.