Axos Financial price target raised to $65 from $59 at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler analyst Andrew Liesch raised the firm’s price target on Axos Financial to $65 from $59 and keeps an Overweight rating on the shares. The firm notes Axos reported Q2 EPS of $2.62, but backing out a bargain purchase gain on the purchase of two performing CRE and multifamily loan pools from the FDIC and the day 2 CECL allowance associated with the loans, Piper puts the core number at $1.53. This topped its estimate by 11c and the Street consensus by 13c. Notably, on an apples-to-apples basis, core EPS were essentially in-line with the firm’s model, Piper says.