Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo believes that investors may be missing out on the next deregulation-led M & A boom. In a Wednesday note to clients, Mayo made the case that bank mergers and acquisitions will accelerate amid the "best regulatory inflection in three decades." "Multi-year deregulation story is still underappreciated. We continue to believe that banks are in a generational period of deregulation," Mayo wrote. "Clarity on stress tests, finalization of Basel 3 endgame and a lighter touch toward deals and regulatory interpretation are all in early stages that can continue through 2028." Upcoming regulatory tailwinds could include fast approvals and less scrutiny for large deals. Banks also have a higher ability to extract cost synergies, such as through branch closures, and less restriction would result in more buyers eligible for the large financial institution, or LFI, designation. The analyst added that banks generally tend to outperform during similar periods of deregulation, as they did in the late 1990s. In the same note, he also shared a few stocks that are the most likely takeover candidates. To compile it, Mayo screened the top 450 banks and ranked them based on a 10-point scale that accessed attributes like fair value, profitability, efficiency, loan-to-deposit ratio and valuation as well as management's age and comments they have made. The screen also looked to see if an activist was involved and the geographic location of the business. "Within our midcaps coverage, the top-scoring banks include [ BankUnited ] (8/10), [ Banc of California ] (7/10), and [ First Horizon ] (7/10)," Mayo said. "Non-covered names with high scores and liquidity (250k+ daily avg. volume) include [ Kearny Financial ], [ OceanFirst Financial ], [ ConnectOne Bancorp ], and [ Blue Ridge Bankshares ]."
