UPDATE: Bank Of America Reiterates On EverBank Financial Following Management Meetings

In a report published Friday, Bank of America analyst Erika Najarian reiterated a Buy rating on

, and raised the price target from $21.00 to $24.00. In the report, Bank of America noted, “We are reiterating our Buy rating on EVER and raising our PO to $24 from $21 following BofA-Merrill Lynch hosted investor meetings with management. "We continue to view the stock as an undervalued growth story in banks, as the market appears to be assigning a lower multiple to the stock (13.3x 2015 P/E vs. smid-cap banks under coverage of 15.5x) given the higher concentration of mortgage banking revenues (32% of total). We think the market undervalues the rest of the bank, and believe both the market multiple and consensus estimates could expand as EVER delivers loan growth that is similar to what peer ‘high growth' banks have and are posting. "Moreover, for long-term investors, we have done some work in this report that suggests that while EVER's absolute deposit costs will always be higher than the industry, its pass-through (or deposit beta) in a rising rate environment could actually be in-line or lower than industry – a notion that we think would surprise the market to the upside. Our $1.20 estimate for 2014 is 8% above the Street.” EverBank Financial closed on Thursday at $19.83.