Baird says get more aggressive on regional banks, upgrades Truist

Baird upgraded Truist Financial to Outperform from Neutral with an unchanged price target of $53. The analyst believes the regional bank risk/reward trade-off is improving and recommends getting "more aggressive" following the selloff. The firm is seeing some of the most attractive valuations for the group since March 2020. The depository issues at SVB Financial (SIVB) won’t reverberate through the banking sector and were a function of the bank’s niche deposit base rather than a systemic issue, the analyst tells investors in a research note. In contrast, Truist’s Southeastern footprint offers one of the most attractive core customer bases in the U.S., Baird contends.