** Lender U.S. Bancorp's USB.N shares rise 1.8% to $48.46 after Raymond James upgrades to "outperform" from "market perform"
** Brokerage says USB has exceeded its earnings forecasts for two consecutive quarters after seven quarters of negative EPS revisions and is coming off an encouraging Investor Day in September
** "Despite producing negative operating leverage in five of the last six years, we believe the bank is poised for positive operating leverage in 2025 and 2026," Raymond James analysts said, calling it U.S. Bancorp's "show-me" phase
** Twelve of 25 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher and 13 rate "hold"; their median PT is $57 — LSEG
** USB shares up 11.2% YTD vs 32% YTD gain for the KBW Banks index .BKX
(Reporting by Sanchayaita Roy in Bengaluru)
((sanchayaita.roy@thomsonreuters.com))
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