Stock Yards Bancorp Inc. Common Stock (SYBT) fair value

ACCE thesis

Stock Yards Bancorp is the holding company for Stock Yards Bank & Trust, a Louisville-based regional bank whose core products are commercial and industrial lending, commercial real estate loans, and a wealth management and trust business that adds fee income on top of net interest income. The franchise sits in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio, and its deposit base and relationship lending give it a funding and pricing position that the larger national banks struggle to match in its markets. The stock trades at 15.0 times trailing earnings and 17.7 times forward, so the market is pricing in some earnings growth but not a rerating. Reported revenue growth of 19.8% and a 13.3% return on equity point to a bank that is compounding faster than its peers, though the forward multiple running above the trailing one means the market already expects some of that to slow. The score of 70 and the absence of index membership suggest a name that has not yet drawn broad institutional attention, which is the reason to look at the balance sheet and credit detail before forming a view.