What Happened?

Shares of regional banking company Zions Bancorporation (NASDAQ: ZION) jumped 2.7% in the afternoon session after the company reported fourth-quarter financial results that surpassed Wall Street's expectations. 

The regional bank posted revenue of $891 million, growing 8.5% year on year and beating analyst estimates by 2.4%. Earnings per share (EPS) were also a bright spot, coming in at $1.76, which was 12.4% ahead of the consensus forecast. The strong earnings were supported by a 20.5% year-on-year increase in Tangible Book Value per Share, another key metric for banks. However, the results were not uniformly positive, as Net Interest Income of $683 million slightly missed expectations, and the bank's efficiency ratio of 62.3% was higher than anticipated, indicating rising costs relative to revenue.

After the initial pop the shares cooled down to $60.94, up 3.1% from previous close.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Zions Bancorporation’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 9 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 3 months ago when the stock dropped 8.3% on the news that the company disclosed it would charge off $50 million after discovering issues with two commercial loans from its California Bank & Trust division. The charge-off, which is when a lender writes off a debt as a loss, stemmed from what the bank described as "apparent misrepresentations and contractual defaults" by two related borrowers. The loans in question totaled approximately $60 million. In response, Zions decided to set aside funds to cover the full $60 million amount and reflect the $50 million charge-off in its third-quarter 2025 financial results. The company also noted it was pursuing legal action to recover the funds.

Zions Bancorporation is up 2.9% since the beginning of the year, and at $60.94 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $60.96 from January 2026. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Zions Bancorporation’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,286.

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