Regionals and Citigroup: Financial Winners
NEW YORK (
) -- Shares of regional banks perceived as potential M&A targets were surging Friday in the wake of an announced deal in which
Bank of Montreal
(BMO) - Get Report
will acquire
Marshall & Ilsley
(MI)
for $4.1 billion, or $7.75 per share.
Though the price was 34% above Marshall and Ilsley's $5.79 closing price on Thursday, Marshall & Ilsley shares had risen no higher than $7.01 per share as of early Friday afternoon. They had dropped from that high to $6.83--still a 17.88% gain on the day.
At least three shareholder groups sent out press releases announcing their intention to oppose the deal on the grounds that the price being paid was too low, though an analyst note from Evercore argued
.
Among the regional banks trading higher Friday on investor hopes they will get acquired were
Synovus Financial
(SNV) - Get Report
, up 3.01% to $2.57,
Regions Financial
(RF) - Get Report
, up 3.92% to $6.37 and
KeyCorp
(KEY) - Get Report
, which had risen by 3.48% to $8.37 early Friday afternoon. Shares of
SunTrust
(STI) - Get Report
were up 3.63% to $26.80.
As for the big banks,
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
was a standout, up 1.6% to $4.66.
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
and
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
were both up about half a percentage point to $30.19 and $12.57 respectively.
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
shares, however, were down by 0.16% to $39.95.
--
Written by Dan Freed in New York
.
Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors, reporters and analysts from holding positions in any individual stocks.