Investors will be closely watching Truist Financial's earnings on Friday, looking for hints about what direction the incoming CEO plans to take.
Truist is scheduled to report second-quarter financial results before the market opens. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect the Charlotte-based bank to report a profit of $1.08 a share on revenue of $5.24 billion.
While investors will be eyeing the second-quarter numbers, the bank's personnel moves may get even more attention. In June, Truist said former Fiserv CEO and PNC veteran Michael Lyons would succeed current CEO Bill Rogers effective Sept. 1.
Wall Street is hoping Lyons will be able to sort out the bank's lingering execution issues. Formed by a 2019 merger between BB&T and SunTrust, Truist's shares have lagged as the bank struggled with a difficult integration. Investors have high hopes for the new regime. Shares have rallied about 9% since the announcement last month.
While speculation about Lyons is certain to hover over Truist's report, the conference call will still be led by Rogers, and Lyons will not be present because he doesn't officially start until Sept. 1, Truist confirmed Thursday, creating a potentially unusual dynamic.
The move is the "right fit, even if a little late," wrote Wells Fargo bank analyst Mike Mayo in a report Wednesday. Mayo said there are several directions Lyons could take the company. One is a focus on retail banking, where Mayo thinks Truist's growth has fallen short given its footprint in the fast-growing Southeast. Payments and wholesale banking are other options.
"The main reason we like the move is that we believe the new CEO can...implement the disciplined execution and improved intensity that we most admired during his tenure at PNC," added Mayo, who rates Truist Equal Weight with a $55 price target, a hair above the stock's current price of around $54.
Regional banks should be set up for a strong quarter. The sector was hit hard when the Federal Reserve hiked short-term interest rates to fight inflation in 2022. But a steepening yield curve has allowed earnings to snap back for the banks, which typically profit by funding themselves with short-term deposits and making longer-term loans to consumers and businesses.
The State Street SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF has returned about 22% in 2026, nearly doubling Truist's return of about 12%.
"While we credit Truist for disciplined expense control, we continue to see residual execution risk, particularly around loan growth," wrote Jefferies analyst David Chiaverini in a sector earnings preview last month.
Hitting financial targets would mean growing loans faster than competitors, while also accelerating net interest income, a difficult feat in the highly competitive Southwest, he added. Chiaverini rates the stock Underperform with a base case $45 price target.
Shares of Truist trade at about 11 times forward earnings, more or less in line with the regional banking sector, according to FactSet. But Truist looks inexpensive from a yield perspective. Its 3.9% annual payout is the highest among large U.S. regional banks.
Write to Ian Salisbury at ian.salisbury@barrons.com
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July 16, 2026 16:53 ET (20:53 GMT)
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