BOK Financial Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of BOK Financial (NAS: BOKF) surged as high as 16% in early Monday trading after a Wall Street analyst upgraded the regional bank from "hold" to "buy."

So what: Along with the upgrade, Stifel Nicolaus upped its price target on the shares to $56, representing about 23% worth of upside to yesterday's close. At the time of publication, BOK shares are well off their highs of the day (only up about 3% now), so much of that upside remains intact.

Now what: Fools know to take analyst upgrades with a grain of salt, but BOK seems worth looking into. Thanks to disciplined underwriting, a solid financial position, and wide product diversification, BOK remains much more protected from heavy loan losses than many other regional banks. With the stock still down more than 13% in August alone and sporting a relatively safe 2%-plus dividend yield, BOK might be a timely pick, as well.

Interested in more info on BOK?Add it to your watchlist.

At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorBrian Pacamparaowns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool'sdisclosure policyalways gets a perfect score.

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