Shares of Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ:FITB) continued to rise in early trading on Monday, after the company reported its first-quarter results on Friday.

The highlight of the quarter was not the company's earnings, rather the closure of the Comerica acquisition without any "tangible book value dilution," according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Gerard Cassidy.

The Fifth Third Bancorp Analyst: Cassidy maintained an Outperform rating and price target of $57.

The Fifth Third Bancorp Thesis: The company's earnings, at 15 cents per share, were adversely impacted by 68 cents per share of non-core items – merger-related charges of $510 million and merger-related Day 1 ACL build of $63 million, Cassidy said in the note.

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Excluding the non-core items, Fifth Third Bancorp's core earnings would have been 83 cents per share. The consensus came in at 82 cents per share. Higher-than-expected net interest income and non-interest income drove the outperformance, Cassidy added.

The highlight of the quarter was that the company closed the "largest acquisition in its history," while simultaneously growing TBV (tangible book value) by 1.2% sequentially and 15% year-over-year to $22.88 per share, the analyst stated. The acquisition added $86 billion in assets, which instantly took Fifth Third Bancorp's total assets past $300 billion, he further added.

Cassidy also expects FITB’s acquisition of CMA (Comerica) to deliver on the goals set for the deal.

Management stated that Fifth Third remains on track to convert all systems during the Labor Day weekend. The move should yield net cost savings of $360 million in 2026.

Management raised their 2026 net interest income guidance to $8.7-$8.8 billion, from their previous projection of $8.6-$8.8 billion.

FITB Price Action: Shares of Fifth Third had risen by 1.26% to $50.98 at the time of publication on Monday.

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