Huntington Bancshares Continues to Deliver Strong Operating Performance in Q3 2026
Despite macroeconomic conditions that may be changing, Huntington Bancshares delivered solid operating performance in the third quarter of 2026. This was reflected in continued execution across its core businesses and the benefits of investments and recent partnerships. In a conference call on October 22nd, the company's leadership provided insight into their strategy for maximizing risk-adjusted returns, optimizing the balance sheet, and continuing to invest for long-term growth.
According to Steve Steinour, Chairman and CEO, Huntington is strategically well-positioned with substantial scale in markets expected to grow above the national average. The company has a leading national commercial bank and a broad set of value-added fee businesses that support sustained organic growth and earnings expansion. This was highlighted in the company's presentation on slide 3, where they noted strong commercial pipelines and solid consumer spending trends.
One of the key takeaways from the call is the company's focus on delivering solid operating performance despite macroeconomic uncertainty. They have made prudent decisions to protect credit performance and returns by scaling back in certain asset classes where risk-adjusted pricing has compressed to levels that are not considered rational. This has impacted the growth of certain loan portfolios but supported their return on tangible common equity.
The partnerships that Huntington has formed continue to perform very well, with cost synergies being achieved as planned and revenue synergies tracking. These partnerships have expanded the company's ability to acquire customers and deepen relationships across Texas and the South. The company's aggregate moderate to low risk appetite remains fundamental to how they operate, and their liquidity position remains robust.
The company has provided expectations for the drivers of value creation over the next two years. They expect EPS growth in 2027 to be more than 20% from 2025, with ROTCE steadily increasing into the 17-18% range. Tangible book value per share is expected to increase by more than 10% from the 2025 level, reflecting continued earnings generation and disciplined capital management.
Huntington has also completed approximately $460 million of share repurchases year-to-date and continues to expect to return substantial capital to shareholders over the next several quarters. These outcomes reflect the strength of their core franchise, continued growth in value-added fee businesses, partner synergies, operating efficiency, and disciplined capital management.
