first horizon corp drew praise from jefferies analyst casey haire for its “pragmatic tone” at its investor day just weeks after the mutual termination of its acquisition by td bank haire reiterated a buy rating on first horizon fhn partly because of its potential to deploy excess capital and the option for more potential mergers ahead he said in a research note published tuesday meanwhile raymond james analyst michael rose stuck to his marketperform rating on first horizon and said the bank “faces the same fundamental challenges currently facing the industry more broadly in the form of net interest margin pressure slowing loan growth normalizing credit trends fee income headwinds and upward expense pressure to name a few” raymond james and jefferies analysts both cut their earnings targets for first horizon in the face of a challenging banking environment first horizon’s stock dropped sharply last month after its merger deal with td bank failed first horizon’s management candidly acknowledges a “challenging” macro backdrop as it pursues its path as a standalone company “while also expressing confidence given their attractive southeast footprint robust capital position and strong clienttalent retention” haire said with net interest income remaining under pressure and expenses likely to climb haire cut his 2023 earnings forecast for first horizon to 154 a share from 158 a share and his 2024 profit forecast to 151 a share from 157 a share “management was vague when asked about excess capital deployment and ma activity but we expect first horizon to be active on both fronts in the future” haire said although stock buybacks are not currently in place the bank’s robust capital ratio would allow it to pursue them at some point in the nottoodistant future haire said “buybacks are off the table for now given macro uncertainty but we expect management to improve following more clarity on regulatory reform andor pulling focus on magnitude of credit normalization” haire said in terms of more mergers and acquisitions first horizon expects industry consolidation to eventually resume “ma will remain part of the strategy as either a target or acquirer to defray the regulatory expense burdens with increased scale as it is best to jump across asset the 100 billion regulatory threshold vs growing organically beyond it” haire said raymond james’s rose cut his 2023 earnings outlook for first horizon to 156 a share from 175 a share and reduced his 2024 earnings view to 140 a share from 175 a share “we continue to view riskreward as balanced for now given ongoing questions around customertalent flight the scopemagnitude of franchise investment and its ability to sustainably drive top quartile returns versus” rose said first horizon’s stock is up 17 on wednesday the stock is down 525 in 2023 compared with a 288 drop by the kbw nasdaq bank index bkx and a 247 drop by the spdr sp regional banking exchangetraded fund kre  also read first horizon stock plunges after merger deal with td bank is mutually terminated