UPDATE: Hilliard Lyons Upgrades Republic Bancorp On Discounted Valuation

In a report published Thursday, Hilliard Lyons analyst Andrew W. Stapp upgraded the rating on Republic Bancorp, Inc. KY (NASDAQ: RBCAA) from Neutral to Long-Term Buy, and raised the price target from $25.00 to $25.50.In the report, Hilliard Lyons noted, “RBCAA's closing price plummeted 4.0% yesterday on no news. With this decline, our price target suggests a potential return of 13.7%, including dividends, which is a meaningful premium relative to the 10-year Treasury yield of 1.8%. We further note that the stock offers a highly attractive dividend yield of 3.2%, which is substantially higher than the yield for the S&P 500 of 2.0%. Based on the foregoing, we are raising our rating to Long-term Buy from Neutral. In establishing our rating upgrade, we have taken into consideration that there are greater uncertainties regarding RBCAA's future profitability relative to the sector given changes in its business model after exiting payday and tax refund lending. These uncertainties may exert downward pressure on RBCAA's share price for some time to come and therefore present risks that our price target may not be achieved.”Republic Bancorp closed on Wednesday at $23.03.