South Plains Financial cut to Neutral at Piper Sandler after recent rally

[Buy / Sell / Hold]
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Piper Sandler downgraded South Plains Financial (NASDAQ:SPFI [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPFI]), the Lubbock, Texas-based parent of City Bank, to Neutral from Overweight after the stock's year-to-date outperformance.

The firm posted a Q3 core EPS beat and pretax preprovision net revenue that exceeded consensus, helped by lower expenses.

"Overall, we see this as a nice quarter, and one that should take the shares higher," analyst Stephen Scouten wrote in a note to clients. "That said, given the YTD outperformance and the massive 15-month run in the shares, we are lowering our rating to Neutral and our PT to $41 - still 12x our 2026E."

Piper's Neutral rating on the stock contrasts with the SA Quant rating [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPFI/ratings/quant-ratings]of Sell and the average Wall Street rating [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SPFI/ratings/sell-side-ratings] of Buy.

MORE ON SOUTH PLAINS FINANCIAL

* South Plains Financial, Inc. 2025 Q3 - Results - Earnings Call Presentation [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4832882-south-plains-financial-inc-2025-q3-results-earnings-call-presentation]
* South Plains Financial, Inc. (SPFI) Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4832828-south-plains-financial-inc-spfi-q3-2025-earnings-call-transcript]
* South Plains Financial targets up to 20% lending platform growth while expanding M&A discussions [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4508015-south-plains-financial-targets-up-to-20-percent-lending-platform-growth-while-expanding-m-and]