Huntington Bancshares Incorporated
HBAN · Nasdaq
Next quarter
Expected to report Jan 21, 2027 — estimated from last year’s reporting date.
Consensus is $0.43 EPS for Dec 2026 across 8 estimates, ranging $0.40 to $0.56.
HBAN Sep 2026
- 0.00%
- $0.38
- $0.38
- —
- $484.00M
Reported results
- $484.00M
- $721.00M
- $0.33
Highlights
- Huntington reported third-quarter diluted EPS of $0.38, matching consensus; EPS was $0.41 in Q3 2025. Management reiterated 2027 EPS guidance of $1.75–$1.83.
- Net interest income was approximately $2.1 billion, up $18 million, or 0.9%, sequentially; net interest margin rose 4 basis points to 3.25%. Management expects NIM to be roughly stable in Q4.
- Period-end loans increased 1.1% sequentially, while average loans declined 0.4%. C&I lending drove growth, but the bank is pulling back in some lower-return asset classes; management expects sequential loan growth in Q4.
- Value-added fee revenue grew more than 15% year over year on a reported basis, including Veritex and Cadence. Huntington expects approximately $750 million of Q4 fee revenue and about 31% full-year fee growth.
- Noninterest expense was $1.7 billion, essentially flat sequentially. Huntington expects core expenses to remain flat in Q4 and targets at least 100 basis points of positive operating leverage for full-year 2026.
- Net charge-offs were 31 basis points, up 6 basis points sequentially; the allowance for credit losses was 1.75% of loans. Management expects full-year charge-offs near the low end of its 25–35 basis-point range.
- Reported CET1 was 10.1% and adjusted CET1 was 8.9%; tangible book value per share was $9.47. The bank repurchased $100 million of shares in Q3 and approximately $460 million year to date.
Analysis
Huntington’s Q3 EPS of $0.38 matched consensus but was below the $0.41 reported a year earlier. The quarter showed sequential improvement in core spread income: net interest income rose $18 million, or 0.9%, to approximately $2.1 billion, and NIM expanded 4 basis points to 3.25%. Average loans were down 0.4% from Q2, although period-end balances rose 1.1%; average deposits increased about $500 million, or 0.2%. Expenses held essentially flat at $1.7 billion, and management said it expects another flat quarter in Q4.
The key tension is growth versus pricing discipline. Strong C&I pipelines and fee businesses support the outlook, but Huntington is accepting slower growth in auto, residential mortgage and commercial real estate where returns have compressed. Value-added fees grew more than 15% year over year, and management expects roughly 31% full-year fee growth. Credit remained within expectations, with 31-basis-point net charge-offs and a 1.75% allowance. Huntington reiterated 2027 EPS guidance of $1.75–$1.83, supported by continued loan growth, cost synergies and buybacks; it expects NIM to remain approximately flat in Q4 and full-year 2026 positive operating leverage of at least 100 basis points.
Earnings and outlook
EPS matched the $0.38 consensus estimate, compared with $0.41 in Q3 2025. Management said Q3 performance was consistent with the financial outlook it had provided in September. It reiterated 2027 EPS guidance of $1.75–$1.83 and described the environment behind that outlook as more competitive and inflationary than it had initially expected, with higher rates and pressure on pricing in selected asset classes.
- 2027 earnings bridge: Management cited approximately $150 million of incremental cost synergies as benefits achieved late in 2026 annualize, worth about $0.06 per share, and roughly $0.02 per share from repurchases. It characterized the remaining approximately $0.14 of the $0.22 increase from its cited 2026 consensus of $1.54 to 2027 consensus of $1.76 as core earnings growth, or about 8%–9%.
- Operating leverage: The company expects at least 100 basis points of positive operating leverage for full-year 2026. It also expects core expenses to be flat in Q4 compared with Q3.
Net interest and funding
Net interest income increased $18 million, or 0.9%, sequentially to approximately $2.1 billion. NIM rose 4 basis points to 3.25%, reflecting higher asset yields, lower average Federal Reserve cash balances and continued optimization of interest-bearing liabilities; lower purchase-accounting accretion and a modest hedge drag partly offset those benefits. Management expects NIM to be relatively stable in Q4, despite some potential benefit from asset repricing, and said its baseline assumes continued deposit competition.
- Deposit costs: The overall cost of deposits was 190 basis points, up 2 basis points sequentially, with the pace of increases moderating significantly from Q2. Management’s forward assumptions include a deposit beta of approximately 50%–60%.
- Core funding: End-of-period deposits increased about $2.2 billion, compared with roughly $2 billion of loan growth. Average deposits rose approximately $500 million, or 0.2%, sequentially.
Loan growth and discipline
C&I lending led loan activity, with contributions from corporate and specialty banking, asset finance and middle-market banking. Period-end loans increased 1.1% from Q2, while average loans declined 0.4%; lower balances in CRE, auto and residential mortgages, along with a seasonal decline in distribution finance, offset commercial gains. Management expects sequential loan growth in Q4 and described pipelines as strong, but is prioritizing risk-adjusted returns over volume where pricing has become unattractive.
- Commercial expansion: Corporate and specialty banking added $11 billion of loans and $9 billion of deposits year over year. Across legacy banking markets, loans grew 6% year over year.
- Selective pullbacks: Huntington cited compressed returns in indirect auto and residential mortgage and faster-than-expected CRE runoff, including refinancing activity. It said these choices reflect capital allocation and pricing discipline, not a change in underwriting standards or a broad deterioration in credit appetite.
- Funding relationships: Consumer, business-banking and commercial primary-bank relationships grew 4%, 5% and 7%, respectively, year over year.
Fees and partnerships
Fee growth is an important counterweight to deliberate restraint in some loan categories. Value-added fee revenue increased more than 15% year over year on a reported basis, including the Veritex and Cadence partnerships. Management expects approximately $750 million of Q4 fee revenue and full-year fee growth of about 31%, while noting that higher rates affected some capital-markets and mortgage activity during Q3.
- Payments and wealth: Treasury-management revenue grew 42% year over year. Wealth net flows increased 28%; in Q3, wealth households grew 9% and assets under management rose 14% on an organic basis.
- Capital markets: Debt and equity capital-markets revenue grew 35% year to date as the business reached full staffing and scale.
- Integration progress: Management said Cadence cost synergies were achieved as planned, with the full run-rate benefit beginning in Q4. Revenue synergies were tracking ahead of original expectations, supported by customer acquisition and expanded payments, wealth and capital-markets capabilities in Texas and the South.
Expenses and investment
Noninterest expense was $1.7 billion, essentially unchanged from Q2, while Huntington generated 120 basis points of positive operating leverage on a trailing four-quarter basis. The company completed the cadence of expense-synergy actions during Q3, with their full run-rate benefit expected in Q4. It also expects to reengineer approximately 1.5% of baseline expenses this year, creating capacity to fund growth investments; total investment dollars were up 25% year over year, including increases in technology and marketing.
Credit and capital
Credit performance was consistent with management’s expectations. Net charge-offs rose 6 basis points sequentially to 31 basis points, primarily due to one commercial credit charge-off; year-to-date charge-offs were 27 basis points. The allowance for credit losses ended Q3 at 1.75%. Criticized assets were 4.26%, compared with 4.18% in Q2, while nonperforming assets rose to 0.90% from 0.85%; management attributed elevated NPAs in part to government-guaranteed loan categories with low loss content. It said its 2027 outlook assumes no reserve release and that reserves would likely grow with the portfolio.
- Capital and shareholder returns: Reported CET1 was 10.1% and adjusted CET1 was 8.9%. Tangible book value per share was $9.47, up 7% in Q3 before shareholder distributions. Huntington repurchased $100 million of common stock in Q3 and approximately $460 million year to date; management cited a plan for approximately $1.8–$1.9 billion of repurchases across 2026 and 2027.
- Dividend: The board declared a common dividend of $0.155 per share, unchanged from the prior quarter.
- Capital outlook: Huntington estimates Basel III implementation could add approximately 70–80 basis points to CET1 through risk-weighted-asset relief.
