RBC Capital nudges up Metro Bank target price

(Sharecast News) - Analysts at RBC Capital Markets hiked their target price on retail and commercial bank Metro Bank from 170p to 195p on Thursday, noting that the lender was now further along in executing its turnaround strategy and should benefit from a higherforlonger interestrate environment.

RBC has shifted its valuation base year to FY28 and argued that treasury asset repricing should help limit downside risks, while Metro may also be less exposed to potential UK political headwinds such as higher bank taxes.

RBC described Metro as an "idiosyncratic story", noting that the bank's share price correlation with the large UK lenders has averaged around 54% since its IPO, compared with roughly 40% for other specialist and smaller lenders.

The Canadian broker said Metro's successful FY23 recapitalisation and progress on its strategic reset had been followed by a marked rise in correlation with the major banks through late 2024 and 2025.

Metro's shares have outperformed the larger UK peers by about 35 percentage points yeartodate, and RBC believes further gains were possible as the bank remains a clear beneficiary of elevated rates.

RBC said Metro's valuation still looked undemanding, trading at around 0.8x its FY28 estimated tangible book value for a forecast return on tangible equity of roughly 18.5%. It sees scope for a further rerating of around 40-85% based on valuation benchmarks across UK, Irish and Continental European banks.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com