(Bloomberg) -- New York Community Bancorp’s recovery from a tumultuous year is far from over, but months of work spent trying to transform the lender may finally be paying off.

The Hicksville, New York-based bank’s shares gained as much as 9% on Thursday after Barclays upgraded its rating on the firm to overweight from equal-weight and boosted its price target to $14. The new target matches the highest amount analysts tracked by Bloomberg and implies upside of about 31% from where the stock currently trades.

“NYCB has completed the heavy lifting around credit evaluation, capital growth and balance sheet repositioning,” Barclays analyst Jared Shaw wrote in a note to clients. “While the path ahead is still challenging, risk/reward appears in its favor as the bank positions for the future.”

Most of Shaw’s peers have moved to the sidelines as the commercial real estate lender worked to right-way its business this year. Out of the 16 analysts tracked by Bloomberg, 13 have a hold rating and the remaining three, including Barclays, have a buy-equivalent recommendation on the stock. 

Shaw noted that the lender has established a “solid footing” as its added multiple new leaders this year and raised capital through a common and convertible preferred offering. 

In March, the troubled lender appointed Joseph Otting, the former comptroller of the currency, as its new chief executive officer. Otting replaced Alessandro DiNello, who became CEO less than a week earlier. The shares have been largely range-bound since then, still trading about 65% lower for the year. The stock plunged in January after the company flagged real estate risks that spooked investors. 

However, fundamentals have been gradually improving for the lender. In the last quarter, NYCB wrote off more for bad loans in the first quarter than estimated, with net charge-offs totaling $81 million, but they came in lower than the fourth-quarter total as well.

“NYCB is well on its way to completing the targeted restructure and recapitalization of the balance sheet, but there are still challenges ahead,” Shaw said as he upgraded the stock for the first time since taking coverage in March. 

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.