UPDATE: JP Morgan Raises OT to $17.50 on Washington Federal

JP Morgan increases its price target from $17 to $17.50 on Neutral-rated Washington Federal

as it increases estimates slightly due to South Valley deal accretion following a report otherwise free of material changes for CY1Q. JP Morgan says, "Following 1Q results, we find our earnings estimates relatively unchanged in the intermediate term given a slower pace of buybacks offsetting expected accretion from the South Valley deal. Our FY2012 and FY2013 EPS estimates are $1.28 and $1.45, respectively. The deal accretion has us bumping up our normalized EPS estimate to $1.63 from $1.58 (2015E)." WAFD closed at $16.92 on Thursday.