Looking ahead, Huntington sees growth, warnings signs

• Key insight: Huntington remains excited about the opportunities its new markets and national lending verticals present, but CEO Steven Steinour says high levels of market turbulence are a cause for concern. 
• Supporting data: The company projects earnings of between $1.75 to 1.83 per share in 2027.

Though some of Huntington Bancshares' business lines struggled in the third quarter, commercial-and-industrial lending hit on all cylinders.

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The Columbus, Ohio-based company's C&I balances grew 3% to $94 billion during the three months ended Sept. 30, helping to offset declines in its commercial real estate, residential mortgage and auto-loan portfolios.

"The environment for commercial customers is still constructive," Brant Standridge, Huntington's president, said Thursday on a call with analysts. "We're still seeing customers pursue growth opportunities. We're still seeing customers execute on a number of strategic initiatives, and I would say [capital expenditure] is still very strong."

The C&I expansion reflects progress in the $287.8 billion-asset Huntington's strategy of adding national commercial-lending verticals, according to executives at the bank.

It's launched 14 verticals since 2015, including one hatched in August that focuses on serving community and property associations and their management partners. Earlier this month, Huntington unveiled an international corporate banking group to work with multinational companies entering or expanding in the U.S.

"That group of corporate and specialty businesses generated $11 billion of loan growth in the last year. That is still in the very early stages," Standridge told American Banker on Thursday.

Headwinds outside of C&I

Outside the C&I arena, Huntington's loan-growth efforts produced more mixed results. There were small gains in home-equity and marine and recreational vehicle lending, but balances in the CRE, home mortgage and automobile portfolios declined by a combined $872 million from June 30, 2026, levels.

The CRE issues stemmed from a surge in construction-loan paydowns in July and August. Huntington slowed auto and mortgage production on its own due to pricing concerns.

"We're seeing areas where we're just not getting risk-adjusted returns," Chairman and CEO Steve Steinour said on the conference call. "We'd rather return capital to shareholders than put it out at what we think would be very low returns, in some cases not even meeting our minimum expectations."

The third quarter was Huntington's first full three-month stretch since converting former Cadence Bancorp customers to its operating system in June. In January, it converted former Veritex Holdings clients.

Acquiring Houston-based Cadence and Dallas-based Veritex added more than $60 billion of assets and expanded Huntington's footprint in Texas and the Southeast.

Commenting on the conference call, Standridge said Huntington has had good success in retaining bankers and clients from Veritex and Cadence, and believes its prospects for growing revenue in the new markets are better than previously expected.

"We're feeling positive about where we are and very optimistic about the opportunities that these markets present for the company," Standridge said.

Huntington reported third-quarter net income totaling $680 million, roughly level with its $686 million second-quarter profit. Year-over-year comparisons were skewed by the additions of Cadence and Veritex.

The third-quarter result amounted to $0.33 per share. Excluding merger-related expenses, Huntington's adjusted earnings-per-share totaled $0.38, topping the consensus estimate of $0.35, according to S&P Capital IQ.

Huntington reported deposits totaling $224.7 billion on Sept. 30, up 1% on a quarter-over-quarter basis. Loans of $191.4 billion were also up 1%.

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Jefferies analyst David Chiaverini characterized Huntington's results as "mixed." In a research note, he said earnings per share were higher than expected, but he also pointed to the muted loan growth.

Huntington, which has reported earnings totaling $0.91 per share through the first nine months of 2026, is projecting earnings per share of $1.75 to $1.83 in 2027. The company believes it will achieve a return on tangible common equity of 17% to 18%, above the 14.6% reported for the quarter ended Sept. 30.

At the same time, Steinour said uncertainty surrounding the ultimate impact of tariffs, interest-rate hikes and inflation means Huntington will tread carefully.

"Having been around this for four-and-one-half decades, I'm a little more cautious, perhaps, than some of my peers," Steinour said. "There's just so much volatility in the markets today. I don't recall the amount of challenges that we're seeing globally at any time in my career. We're going to be sensitive to that in terms of how much volume we want to add."