Regions Financial Corp (RF)

[mrright]

From Yahoo.com financial pages posted today 5/27/09:

Regions Financial shares rise on analyst upgrade
Regions Financial's shares recover some of recent slide on analyst upgrade

On Wednesday May 27, 2009, 1:55 pm EDT
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BOSTON (AP) -- Shares of Regions Financial Corp. rose Wednesday after a Deutsche Bank North America analyst upgraded the bank's stock and said a recent selloff of the company's shares was unwarranted.

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Symbol Price Change
RF 3.96 +0.13

In upgrading the stock to "Buy" from "Hold," Matt O'Connor also said steps that Regional Financial has taken to shore up its capital position justify a higher price for the stock.

O'Connor said a 21 percent drop in the bank's stock over the seven trading days preceding his Tuesday client note was "overdone."

O'Connor wrote that "the drag from recent capital actions should be mostly behind us, and we don't expect any meaningful negative surprises in the near term."

On May 20, the Birmingham, Ala.-based bank said it would raise $1.85 billion in new capital through the public sale of 400 million common shares and 250,000 convertible preferred shares. The bank is trying to satisfy the U.S. Treasury Department's demand that it raise $2.5 billion to shore up its cash position.

O'Connor maintained his $5 target for the stock, which he said is trading at a discount to its banking peers.

Since the start of this year, shares of Regions Financial had fallen more than 50 percent through Tuesday's close, when the stock ended at $3.83.

In afternoon trading Wednesday, shares of Regions Financial added 21 cents, or 5.5 percent, to $4.04.