Associated Banc-Corp (ASB) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $4.10B
• Dividend Yield: 3.51%
• Average Volume (3M): 1.97M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): 7.8
• Beta (1Y): 1.21
• Revenue Growth: -1.44%
• EPS Growth: -21.65%
• Country: US
• Employees: 4,006
• Sector: Financial
• Sector Strength: 70
• Industry: Banks - Regional
• EPS (TTM): 0.81
• Shares Outstanding: 165,975,080
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 2,140,736
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 1,972,258
• PEG Ratio: 0.03
• Price to Book (P/B): 0.85
• Price to Sales (P/S): 1.73
• P/FCF Ratio: 7.27
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 1.88
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: 3.14
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: 5.40
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: 11.79
• 1Y Price Target: $30.29
• Price Target Upside: 22.53% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Hold
• Number of Analyst Covering: 8
• EPS Forecast (FY): 2.87
• Revenue Forecast (FY): $1.69B

• Rating: 69 Neutral
• Price Target: $27.00 ▲(9.22% Upside)
• Action: Downgraded Date: 03/13/26
• Date: Action: Downgraded 03/13/26

The score is driven primarily by improving financial performance and a constructive earnings outlook, reinforced by a low P/E and solid dividend yield. These positives are tempered by weak technicals (downtrend/negative momentum) and the ongoing risks highlighted around earnings volatility and higher recent leverage.

Positive Factors

Margin Recovery

A pronounced rebound in revenue and net margins in 2025 indicates restored earnings power and operating leverage versus the recent trough. Sustained higher margins support internal capital formation, dividend/capital flexibility and resilience to moderate rate or loan mix shifts over a multi‑quarter horizon.

Cash Generation

Consistent operating cash flow and improving free cash flow provide durable funding for dividends, investments and M&A funding without excessive reliance on external capital. Strong cash conversion also underpins balance sheet flexibility and the ability to absorb modest earnings variability.

Strategic Market Expansion

Regulatory approval of the American National merger is a structural expansion into Omaha and deeper Twin Cities penetration. The deal accelerates deposit and household growth, increases scale in priority Midwest markets, and offers durable revenue diversification once systems and branches are converted.

Negative Factors

Rising Leverage

Material increase in debt balances tightens financial flexibility and raises sensitivity to funding cost increases or credit stress. Higher leverage can amplify earnings volatility and limit the bank's ability to pursue discretionary investments or capital returns during adverse cycles over the coming quarters.

Yield Pressure and CRE Payoffs

Compression in lending yields and elevated CRE payoff activity are structural headwinds to net interest income and NIM sustainability. Persistently lower yields reduce core margin resilience and may force higher loan originations or repricing actions to maintain growth, pressuring underwriting or acquisition economics.

Integration & Expense Pressure

Ongoing investments (RMs, marketing) plus integration costs raise the baseline expense run‑rate and create execution risk tied to the acquisition. If synergies or deposit/loan conversion lag, persistent higher expenses could erode efficiency gains and compress forward profitability for several quarters.

Associated Banc-Corp Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

Associated Banc-Corp, a bank holding company, provides various banking and nonbanking products to individuals and businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota. The company operates through three segments: Corporate and Commercial Specialty; Community, Consumer, and Business; and Risk Management and Shared Services. Its Corporate and Commercial Specialty segment offers lending solutions, including commercial loans and lines of credit, commercial real estate financing, construction loans, letters of credit, leasing, asset based lending, and loan syndications; deposit and cash management solutions, such as commercial checking and interest-bearing deposit products, cash vault and night depository services, liquidity solutions, payables and receivables solutions, and information services; specialized financial services such as interest rate risk management, foreign exchange solutions, and commodity hedging; fiduciary services such as administration of pension, profit-sharing and other employee benefit plans, fiduciary and corporate agency services, and institutional asset management; and investable funds solutions such as savings, money market deposit accounts, IRA accounts, CDs, fixed and variable annuities, full-service, discount and online investment brokerage; investment advisory services; and trust and investment management accounts. The company's Community, Consumer, and Business segment offers lending solutions, such as residential mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit, personal and installment loans, auto loans, business loans, and business lines of credit; and deposit and transactional solutions such as checking, credit, debit and pre-paid cards, online banking and bill pay; and money transfer services. As of December 31, 2021, the company operated 215 banking branches. Associated Banc-Corp was founded in 1861 and is headquartered in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

How the Company Makes Money

ASB makes money primarily through (1) net interest income and (2) noninterest (fee-based) income. Net interest income is generated by earning interest and fees on interest-earning assets—most notably commercial loans (including commercial real estate and business lending) and consumer loans (such as residential mortgage and other consumer lending)—and investing in securities, then paying interest on funding sources such as customer deposits and wholesale borrowings; the spread between interest earned and interest paid, adjusted for changes in balances and market rates, is a core driver of earnings. Noninterest income is generated from fees and commissions tied to banking services, which typically include service charges and account-related fees, card and payment-related fees, mortgage banking-related revenues (such as origination and secondary-market activities), wealth management and trust/investment management fees, and certain treasury-management and capital-markets-related fees provided to business customers. Additional contributors to profitability include disciplined credit underwriting (which affects provision for credit losses), operating efficiency across branch and digital delivery, and the mix and cost of deposits (e.g., low-cost transaction and savings deposits versus higher-cost time deposits or borrowings), which influences funding costs and margins. Specific material partnerships or unique revenue-sharing arrangements: null.

Associated Banc-Corp Financial Statement Overview

Summary

2025 showed a strong rebound with meaningfully higher revenue growth and sharply improved profitability/margins, supported by solid and improving free cash flow. Offsetting this, performance has been volatile across cycles and balance-sheet leverage has risen recently, which increases risk if profitability softens.

Income Statement

Revenue accelerated meaningfully in 2025 (up 14.5% vs. near-flat in 2024), and profitability rebounded sharply with net margin improving to ~19.3% from ~5.9% in 2024. EBIT margin also strengthened to ~23.5% (vs. ~6.4% in 2024), signaling a strong earnings recovery. The main weakness is volatility: margins were much higher in 2021–2022, fell materially in 2023–2024, then rebounded in 2025—suggesting earnings power has been inconsistent across cycles.

Balance Sheet

Leverage looks manageable with debt-to-equity at ~0.84 in 2025, improved versus the 2022 peak (~1.29), and equity has grown steadily (to ~$5.0B in 2025 from ~$4.0B in 2020–2022). Returns on equity improved to ~9.5% in 2025 from ~2.7% in 2024, reflecting the earnings recovery. The key risk is balance-sheet leverage trending higher recently (debt rising from ~$2.8B in 2023 to ~$4.2B in 2025), which reduces flexibility if profitability softens again.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is solid and improving: operating cash flow rose to ~$616M in 2025 (from ~$580M in 2024), and free cash flow grew ~9.4% in 2025 after modest growth in 2024. Free cash flow also covered net income well in recent years, reaching 1.0x in 2025 (and ~0.92x in 2024). The weakness is variability over time (including a sharp free-cash-flow decline in 2023) and relatively low operating cash flow versus the company’s asset base as indicated by the provided coverage metric.

Breakdown	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021
Income Statement
Total Revenue	2.46B	2.10B	2.02B	1.42B	1.12B
Gross Profit	1.43B	944.38M	1.01B	1.20B	1.14B
EBITDA	577.91M	236.97M	300.36M	528.51M	506.75M
Net Income	474.78M	123.14M	182.96M	366.12M	350.99M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	45.20B	43.02B	41.02B	39.41B	35.10B
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	5.97B	5.57B	4.52B	3.34B	5.36B
Total Debt	4.17B	3.16B	2.81B	5.17B	2.22B
Total Liabilities	40.23B	38.42B	36.84B	35.39B	31.08B
Stockholders Equity	4.98B	4.61B	4.17B	4.02B	4.02B
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	584.73M	535.26M	380.93M	783.86M	477.27M
Operating Cash Flow	621.10M	580.25M	442.74M	846.57M	529.55M
Investing Cash Flow	-1.63B	-2.22B	-1.44B	-5.25B	-1.58B
Financing Cash Flow	1.71B	1.73B	1.30B	4.00B	1.36B

Associated Banc-Corp Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Negative
• Last Price: 24.72
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Positive
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Neutral

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For ASB, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 24.72 is below the 20-day moving average (MA) of 26.18, below the 50-day MA of 26.73, and below the 200-day MA of 25.33, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -0.73 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 34.20 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 27.33 is Neutral, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for ASB.

Associated Banc-Corp Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
IBOC	76 Outperform	$4.17B	10.04	14.31%	2.03%	0.99%	4.94%
ABCB	71 Outperform	$5.09B	12.33	10.41%	1.02%	2.20%	20.88%
ASB	69 Neutral	$4.10B	7.75	9.83%	3.51%	-1.44%	-21.65%
Sector *	68 Neutral	$18.00B	11.42	9.92%	3.81%	9.73%	1.22%
BANF	65 Neutral	$3.56B	14.89	13.85%	1.70%	6.55%	12.94%
TCBI	65 Neutral	$4.04B	12.34	9.30%	―	5.19%	3454.95%
SFBS	65 Neutral	$4.01B	14.19	15.96%	1.82%	3.97%	24.91%

Associated Banc-Corp Corporate Events

Associated Banc-Corp Secures Approvals for American National Acquisition

On March 12, 2026, Associated Banc-Corp announced it had secured all required regulatory approvals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve for its previously disclosed acquisition of American National Corporation and American National Bank. The transaction is slated to close on April 1, 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, marking a key step in consolidating the two Midwest-focused institutions.

Management described the merger as a complementary partnership that will accelerate Associated’s organic growth strategy by providing entry into the Omaha market and strengthening its position in the Twin Cities. Following the expected closing, Associated plans to convert American National’s systems, branches and customers to its own platform in the third quarter of 2026, with American National clients continuing to be served through their existing branches until the integration is complete.

The most recent analyst rating on (ASB) stock is a Buy with a $31.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Associated Banc-Corp stock, see the ASB Stock Forecast page.

Associated Banc-Corp Posts Record 2025 Profit, Plans Expansion

Associated Banc-Corp reported record net income available to common shareholders of $463 million for full-year 2025, driven by 4.7% total loan growth, 11.6% commercial and industrial loan growth, 2.6% deposit growth, and 14.7% net interest income growth, alongside net interest margin expansion and improved efficiency and credit metrics. The company outlined a sustained organic growth strategy centered on expanding commercial teams, upgrading digital and mass affluent offerings, and accelerating investment and customer acquisition in key metro markets—particularly Milwaukee, Chicago, Twin Cities, Omaha, Kansas City and Dallas—to gain market share and support continued loan and checking household growth in 2026 and beyond.

The most recent analyst rating on (ASB) stock is a Hold with a $33.00 price target. To see the full list of analyst forecasts on Associated Banc-Corp stock, see the ASB Stock Forecast page.