At least one beaten-up regional bank was well prepared for the issues that brought down Silicon Valley Bank, and that makes its stock a rebound candidate, according to Piper Sandler. Analyst R. Scott Siefers reiterated his overweight rating on Fifth Third Bancorp . on Tuesday, saying that the Cincinnati-based bank was well hedged for the rapid rise in interest rates that has stressed other regional banks. “FITB has visibly been among the most active in hedging its rate position, which we believe will … help to buoy its [net interest income/net interest margin] performance better than we’ll see at most peers. Plus, the company’s diversified business mix should pay dividends in an environment that is becoming increasingly challenging for NII momentum, anyway,” Siefers said, referring to net interest income. The hedging actions by Fifth Third are in stark contrast to SVB’s portfolio, which had little interest rate hedging despite a large exposure to long duration bonds. That combination led investors and depositors at SVB to realize that the bank’s bond holdings were overvalued on paper, sparking a bank run that led to its March 10 closure by regulators. In its final annual report , SVB reported a notional amount of $550 million of interest rate swaps as hedging instruments as of Dec. 31, 2022. Fifth-Third, which was roughly the same size as SVB at the time, reported nearly $6 billion of swaps used to hedge long-term debt, in addition to other swaps on its loan portfolio. The fallout from SVB has hit many regional bank stocks, including Fifth Third. The stock has dropped more than 27% in March and closed at $26.26 per share on Monday. Piper Sandler’s price target for Fifth-Third is $34 per share, or nearly 30% upside for the stock. Siefers named it a top conviction idea among Midwest banks. FITB 1M mountain Fifth Third is one of many bank stocks that has struggled in March. Outside of its interest rate hedges, Fifth Third also has strong capital ratios and appears to have been active in shoring up its balance sheet, according to Piper Sandler. “We believe FITB has made meaningful improvements to its risk profile over the past several years, basically revisiting every aspect of the portfolio to position itself well for an eventual downturn and conservatively holding a nearly 2% reserve,” Siefers said. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting.