East West Bancorp upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded East West Bancorp to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $76, up from $66. East West’s capital strength and “differentiated” customer base creates the foundation for operational outperformance in light of a wide range of banking industry headwinds in 2024, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says in a year that’s likely to see a meaningful deceleration in loan growth across the mid cap banks, East West should be able to grow average loans at 6%, well above the peer median of 1.5%.