Western Alliance Bancorporation (NYSE:WAL) shares jumped Wednesday after the regional bank said its deposits have been rebounding in April after declining 11% in the first quarter. Wedbush upgraded the stock to outperform after Western Alliance’s quarterly report despite the bank’s net income falling more than 50% from the previous quarter.
After the market closed Tuesday, management reported financial results covering the first quarter of the company's 2023 fiscal year. The stock shot up roughly 17% in after-hours trading in response to some rather bullish results. The good news for the company (in the view of some experts) extends far beyond the fact that it beat expectations when it came to both revenue and profits. The key driver behind the increase, instead, seems to have been an update provided by management that shows that the company has weathered this downturn quite well. In fact, some would go so far as to say that the crisis for the company is essentially over and that the stock would likely move up significantly from here before it settles at fair value.
“The flexibility of our diversified, national commercial banking strategy, with a broad range of value-added deposit channels and deep commercial customer relationships in a wide variety of sectors and geographies, all contributed to our firm’s resilience in the face of recent turbulence in the banking industry,” said CEO Kenneth A. Vecchione.
WAL shares hiked $5.53, or 17%, to $38.04.
