East West Bancorp… Buying Busted Bank & Lovin It (EWBC)

Posted in pre-market 
November 9th, 2009

East West Bancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: EWBC) is soaring this morning, but perhaps on thinner volume than many would like to see.

UPDATE at 9:30 AM EST Shares are up over 40% at $12.25 on almost 2 million shares

At 9:18 AM EST we have a 27% gain to $11.00 after closing at $8.65 on Friday.  We have also seen almost 30,000 shares trade hands versus an average volume of 1.6 million shares.  With a gain of this sort, you can expect volume to catch up sooner rather than later.  The company has has acquired the banking operations of United Commercial Bank in an “FDIC assisted transition”…. In short, they are buying that FDIC-taken assets of the bank.   FBR Capital Markets also raised its price target to $16 on the news.

Jon C. Ogg
November 9, 2009

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