Flagstar Financial: Hold Rating Amid Growth Ambitions and Persistent Credit RisksFlagstar is on track to deliver anticipated PPNR gains and credit improvement for the year, which at a minimum should succeed in flipping to adj. EPS profitability in 4Q (we model GAAP EPS 2c vs. Op. EPS 3c). Payoffs remain encouraging, and a line of sight to as much as ~$1.5bn of nonaccrual resolution by YE26 is also a positive, in our view. Risk on the credit front remains, but with trends here improving, the other key variable will likely be medium-term balance sheet growth. Management projects ~$16bn of growth through YE27, which we think is - at least on the surface - an ambitious goal. We do note, however, that production trends in C&I originations and commitments suggest it is possible, especially given it's still early days for ~125 recent hires and an avg. commitment size of ~$30m.