PNC ‘prudently taking advantage of’ environment, says Evercore ISI

After PNC Financial (PNC) announced an agreement to acquire Colorado’s FirstBank Holding Company, including its banking subsidiary FirstBank, Evercore ISI said that PNC is “prudently taking advantage of the warmer regulatory waters to gain scale in attractive markets via manageably-sized deals” and added that a deal of this magnitude is unlikely to materially alter PNC’s core growth efforts nor potential interest in future transactions. The firm, which also says it “cannot rule out” a continued trend of smaller industry deals given the ability to close deals in a timely manner with a limited impact to capital, has an Outperform rating and $220 price target on PNC shares.