BNY Mellon upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded BNY Mellon to Equal Weight from Underweight with a price target of $62, up from $52. The analyst upgraded the large cap bank group to Attractive, saying it looks like Basel endgame “will be lightened.” This opens the door for a significant increase in buybacks, as large cap banks have the highest excess capital levels ever, at a time when the capital markets are rebounding, the analyst tells investors in a research note. For BNY Mellon, the firm says the “potentially better-than-feared outcome” on Basel 3 Endgame leads it to model almost $4B of freed up capital for return to shareholders across 2025 and 2026 versus prior estimates.