Financial Winners and Losers: KeyCorp

Updated from 3:06 p.m. EDT

Financial stocks helped to lift the market higher Thursday, thanks to a series of upgrades to the sector. 


Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) and Morgan Stanley(MS Quote) were upgraded to outperform from market perform by Bernstein Research analyst Brad Hintz, who saw a lack of competition and fixed income trading aiding their results. He increased the price target for Goldman to $176 and Morgan to $37. Both closed the day on the upside with Goldman gaining 5.2% to end the day at $149.47 and Morgan closed up 5% to $31.20.



The NYSE Financial Sector Index climbed 2.9% to close at 4030.51 and the KBW Bank Index jumped 4.8% to 37.88.



FBR Capital Markets upgraded Raymond James (RJF Quote) to market perform based on valuation. The analyst is still cautious on the earnings outlook and has a price target of $15. The stock jumped over 7.2% to $16.52. KeyCorp (KEY Quote) got an upgrade to top pick from sector perform from RBC Capital Markets and was lifted a whopping 19.6% to $5.50. The analyst felt that the current valuation overplayed the risk factor.


Keefe Bruyette & Woods upgraded BB&T (BBT Quote) to market perform from underperform on the strength of its recent dividend cut and capital raise. The stock edged up 61 cents to $22.26 for the day. Bank of America (BAC Quote) and SunTrust (STI Quote) both received a price target increase from KBW, pushing the stocks up 5.9% and 5.2%, respectively. 



Fifth Third Bank (FITB Quote) popped 7.4% to $7 on the completion of its $1 billion stock offering. The bank needed to raise capital after the recent stress tests, but it's also making noise about already positioning itself to pay back government bailout money.