New York Community rallies after Barclays upgrades on risk/reward

Barclays upgraded New York Community Bancorp to Overweight from Equal Weight with an unchanged price target of $14. The stock in premarket trading is up 3% to $11.02. While there is “still plenty of hard work ahead,” the bank is now “more firmly positioned,” and with the announcements over the past few weeks of new senior lender hiring, appears positioned to start looking to the future, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm New York Community’s capital levels have “improved significantly” with CET1 likely moving solidly over 11% by year-end. Additionally, its credit trends are stabilizing with $430M in loans charged off and $276M added to reserves, Barclays says. At a current valuation of 51% of tangible book value, the firm views the stock’s risk/reward positively.