NEW YORK, March 12, 2026, 12:09 EDT
Huntington Bancshares shares steadied on Thursday after the regional lender told investors first-quarter trends were still tracking to its 2026 plan. HBAN was down about 0.4% at $15.58 around midday in New York, after dropping 2.2% on Wednesday to close at $15.64. 1
The update lands at a delicate point for the stock. Huntington is still trading roughly 20% below its Feb. 6 high of $19.46, and Wednesday’s fall came on volume above its 50-day average. At the RBC Capital Markets Global Financial Institutions Conference, management used the moment to revisit its growth model and the integration of Cadence and Veritex. 1
In slides filed with the SEC for Wednesday’s presentation, Huntington left its 2026 targets unchanged. It said loans were still tracking to grow 11% to 12% and deposits 8% to 9%, while net interest income – a key measure of lending profitability – remains set to rise 10% to 13%. 2
“Q1 looks really good,” finance chief Zach Wasserman said at the conference, adding that first-quarter activity was still lining up with the bank’s full-year plan and that credit remained sound. Chief Executive Steve Steinour had described Huntington’s January setup as having “excellent momentum” when the bank laid out its 2026 forecast. 3
Capital return is part of the case. Huntington’s slide deck showed about $550 million of share repurchases in 2026 and roughly $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion in 2027, and Wasserman said the bank had already retired just under half a percentage point of its stock in the last month. 2
Management also leaned on integration math. Huntington projected annualized cost savings of $435 million by 2027, including $365 million from Cadence by the fourth quarter of 2026 and $70 million from Veritex by the second quarter of 2026, plus annualized revenue gains of more than $300 million by 2028. Brant Standridge, the bank’s president of consumer and regional banking, called the deals a “springboard for growth, not a substitute for it.” 2
HBAN was holding up a bit better than some regional-bank peers on Thursday, though the group was still weak. Fifth Third fell about 1.8%, Regions dropped 2.1%, and the SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF was down 0.8%, compared with Huntington’s smaller decline.
Still, reassurance may not be enough if deposit competition stays fierce or market volatility starts to spill into customer behavior. Standridge said competition for deposits was intense, while Wasserman said Huntington was watching volatility closely; any miss on retention, credit or the timing of Cadence and Veritex savings could keep the shares pinned near recent lows. 3
