Glacier Bancorp added to DA Davidson Best-of-Breed Bison initiative

DA Davidson raised the firm’s price target on Glacier Bancorp to $38 from $36 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm is also adding the stock to its Best-of-Breed Bison initiative that seeks to identify the highest quality companies with “strong competitive positioning and exceptional financials”. Glacier’s competitive moat is galvanized by a unique operating structure with 17 separate divisions across 8 Western states that offers management autonomy, an effective M&A strategy that seeks partnerships rather than slash and burn merger tactics, and a dominant market share position with a Top 3 placement in nearly half of the bank’s markets, the analyst tells investors in a research note.