TFC Truist Financial Corporation

$TFC INSIDER BUY: Truist CEO Michael Lyons bought 25,000 shares in the open market on Oct 28 at an average of $48.36, about 1.21 million. His directly held shares went from 21,000 to 46,000 (SEC Form 4, reported today). He also holds about 352 thousand unvested stock units from his 2026 grants.

Truist Financial is exploring a potential sale of its specialized lending unit, Afco Credit Corp., as part of an effort to reduce balance-sheet exposure and refocus on its core commercial banking operations, Bloomberg reported. The Charlotte-based bank is working with financial advisers to assess buyer interest in Afco, an insurance-premium financing provider with approximately $6 billion to $7 billion in assets. Truist is considering either selling the entire business or directly disposing of its loan portfolio assets. Private credit firms are expected to show interest, according to people familiar with the matter. Although valuation terms remain preliminary, the transaction is expected to command a premium to the underlying asset base. The strategic review represents an early move under newly appointed CEO Mike Lyons, who took over last month after serving as an executive at Fiserv. $TFC

$TFC Q3 adjusted EPS came in at 1.16, revenue 5.30 billion, and net interest income actually beat, 3.71 billion vs 3.70 billion expected. The bigger move in the same release: Truist is selling LightStream to Carlyle, expected to bring in 7.2 billion in net proceeds and create about 850 million in CET1 capital. Q4 guide is adjusted revenue around 5.35 billion, with roughly 1 billion of buybacks planned.

$TFC (Truist, a top-10 US commercial bank, $554B in assets) signed a deal Oct 14 to sell $7.7B of LightStream unsecured consumer loans to Carlyle for ~$7.2B of net proceeds and ~20bp of CET1, vs 10.7% at Sept 30. The loans are ~2.4% of its $323.9B book; market value ~$56.89B at $46.57 (16:00 ET Oct 15). Truist may redo 3Q's AFS swap to offset that: $8.6B at 2.67% for $7.2B at 5.60%, modestly accretive per Truist, at a $1.4B pre-tax loss ($0.90/sh; $0.60 net of RAC's $0.30, to $0.56 GAAP EPS). Close expected 4Q26; proceeds to repay wholesale borrowings.

$TFC Q3 '26 Earnings Results & Recap • Reported GAAP EPS of $1.16 up 11.54% YoY • Reported revenue of $5.3B up 1.18% YoY

$TFC is one of those setups where my signals argue with each other. Truist's CEO bought ~1M USD of stock in mid-September (insider flag since Sept 18), after holding no shares directly before. The stock is ~10% lower over the past month and has sat on my oversold screen since yesterday (RSI 26.8). On paper it looks cheap: P/E ~10.5, ~4.5% yield, Piotroski 8/9. But short-term momentum flipped to Sell yesterday, and banks are fighting a 10y yield near 5.3%. Q3 earnings Oct 16 before the open. Not in it. Was he early, or just wrong on timing?

$TFC No catalyst for banks, this could $38-40 again which would be crazy. I will look at it then