Stocks have been under pressure this week after quarterly results from Target and Walmart raised concerns about weakening consumer activity and retailers’ ability to weather soaring inflation. The major indices were positive this morning but still on track for another losing week.
The Fed has signaled it will continue to aggressively raise rates as it fights to temper inflation. Earlier this week, Fed Chair Powell said, “If that involves moving past broadly understood levels of neutral, we won’t hesitate to do that.”
Amid surging consumer prices and increasing rates, many investors are looking for stocks that offer reliable income to hedge against inflation that continues to weigh heavily on markets. Today we’ll discuss a lending company that provides investors with a substantial payout. What’s more this name has been noted as “one of the biggest potential beneficiaries” of rate hikes given management’s commitment to reinvest substantially into securities quarterly in 2022.
Regional bank M&T Bank (MTB) caught investor attention earlier this month after the company topped earnings expectations and provided solid guidance. For the quarter, the lending company reported diluted earnings per share of $2.62 on revenue of around $1.45 billion.
“The first-quarter results continue to reflect M&T’s strong credit underwriting as evidenced by historically low charge-offs for the quarter and a stable allowance for credit losses,” CFO Darren King said. “Revenues were in line with expectations and expenses, which include the usual seasonal increase in salaries and employee benefits expense, were prudently managed.”
King also said on the call that the bank expects solid loan growth for the remainder of the year and that management anticipates that net interest income (the profit a bank makes on loans, securities, and cash after funding those assets) will rise substantially as the Fed boosts benchmark interest rates.
During the quarter, M&T also received approval from the Federal Reserve to finalize its $8.2 billion purchase of People’s United Financial, a significant deal that propelled the bank to well over $200 billion in assets. With the acquisition closed, M&T will soon resume share repurchases — the board of directors recently reauthorized an $800 million stock buyback program.
Morgan Stanley analyst Betsy Graseck recently double upgraded M&T Bank to Overweight from Underweight with a price target of $238, up from $179, arguing that rate sensitivity “trumps” credit fears. Baking in three additional rate hikes adds a total of $623M to 2022 net interest income and $3.01 to EPS, said Graseck, who sees M&T being “one of the biggest beneficiaries” of rate hikes given its “large cash pile” and management’s clarification that it intends to reinvest $2B of cash into securities quarterly in 2022.
Anyone looking to cut back on risk in the second half of the year will appreciate MTB for its below market beta of 0.8 and a debt/capital ratio of just 18%. The cherry on top for M&T investors is the 2.84% annual yield, backed by a highly sustainable 32% payout ratio.
Should you invest in MTB right now?
Before you consider buying MTB, you'll want to see this.
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