Carolina Financial Committed To Ambitious Growth

Unless you're a momentum investor, I'm not sure there's any U.S. bank stock left out there that looks like a good prospect. Frustrating as that may be, it doesn't mean that it's not a good time to do due diligence and build a prospective shopping list for when the inevitable pull-back comes. With that in mind, I think Carolina Financial (NASDAQ:CARO) is a small bank with big growth ambitions that is worth a closer look.

To be sure, ambition is no guarantee of success. Carolina Financial's deposit mix is not ideal (though it's not bad) and the company's growth plans are going to put it head-to-head with banks like BB&T (NYSE:BBT), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), SunTrust (NYSE:STI), South State (NASDAQ:SSB), and Synovus (NYSE:SNV) when it comes to growing low-cost deposits and loans. Likewise, management's ambitious asset growth targets will require more M&A, a process that carries its own set of risks including overpayment and buying into problematic loan books.

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Carolina Financial Committed To Ambitious Growth