Texas Banks' Earnings Are In The Books: Here's How To Play It

The collapse in oil prices has been a good thing for many parts of the U.S. economy, lowering fuel and material costs and providing additional disposable income to consumers. However, the weak oil environment has also had a negative impact on parts of the economy outside of the energy sector.

In a new report, Piper Jaffray analyst Brett Rabatin discusses the outlook for Texas banks, which have been suffering right along with many of their local oil industry customers. Here’s a breakdown of what Rabatin had to say about the group following Q2 earnings.

Criticized loans
All the Texas banks discussed in the report had “fairly sizable” increases in criticized and classified energy loans in Q2. Rabatin sees growing concern in the market about the risks involved with these types of loans and points out that the Texas banks trade at a multiple discount to national peers.

Uncertain outlook
Rabatin says that the overall outlook for Texas in coming quarters is murky. However, he sees “a lot of bright spots” in the state, including the Dallas region.

Stock picks
Rabatin is cautious on Comerica Inc CMA and fails to see potential catalysts for the stock outside of rising interest rates.

However, he has a more positive outlook for Texas Capital BancShares Inc TCBI. “We still believe TCBI has a strong growth catalyst and potential profitability improvement… but we are a little more cautious on credit quality,” he explains.

Piper Jaffray has Overweight ratings on Texas Capital, BOK Financial Corp BOKF, Legacy Texas Financial Group Inc LTXB and Hilltop Holdings Inc HTH.