Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ: ZION) was upgraded by equities research analysts at TheStreet from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday.

The analysts wrote, “Zions (ZION) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from hold to buy. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its expanding profit margins, solid stock price performance and notable return on equity. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had sub par growth in net income.”

ZION has been the subject of a number of other recent research reports. Analysts at Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Zions Bancorporation from $27.00 to $29.00 in a research note to investors on Friday, February 15th. Separately, analysts at SunTrust raised their price target on shares of Zions Bancorporation from $26.50 to $27.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday, February 12th. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Zions Bancorporation from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note to investors on Thursday, January 31st. They now have a $20.00 price target on the stock. They noted that the move was a valuation call.

Zions Bancorporation opened at 24.04 on Monday. Zions Bancorporation has a 1-year low of $17.45 and a 1-year high of $24.92. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $23.49. The company has a market cap of $4.427 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.73.

Zions Bancorporation last announced its earnings results on Monday, January 28th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.22. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Zions Bancorporation will post $1.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Zions Bancorporation is a financial holding company. The Company focuses on providing community banking services by continuously strengthening its core business lines of small and medium-sized business and corporate banking; commercial and residential development, construction and term lending; retail banking; treasury cash management and related products and services; residential mortgage; trust and wealth management, and investment activities.

To view TheStreet’s full report, visit www.thestreetratings.com

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