UPDATE: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Downgrades Regions Financial

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on Monday downgraded Regions Financial Corp (NYSE: RF) from Market perform to Underperform. The firm's price target on Regions Financial is $9.50.

Analysts Christopher Mutascio and Daniel Coffman wrote, "We believe the rally on a decent jobs report is overdone. We still don't envision the Fed raising interest rates until late 2015 and then moving at an incredibly slow pace thereafter….It is hard for us to see the Fed moving in any significant manner while the rest of the world is fighting off deflationary risks and slowing economies by devaluing their currencies as fast as possible. In other words, we don't see the Fed providing an earnings catalyst for RF any time soon."

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods estimates that Regions Financial will report earnings of $0.74 and $0.81 for 2015 and 2016, respectively, are 8 percent below the consensus EPS estimates of $0.80 and $0.88. Regions Financial is currently trading at its price target, thus analysts see substantial downside risk to the current consensus EPS estimates in both 2015 and 2016.

Regions Financial closed Friday at $9.56, up 3.91 percent.

Posted-In: Christopher Mutascio Daniel Coffman Keefe Bruyette & WoodsAnalyst Color Downgrades Price Target Analyst Ratings