Is ONB a Buy? What to Consider in 2026
Last updated July 2026
Short answer
The bull case for Old National Bancorp (ONB) rests on Growth through acquisition and scale: Old National has expanded aggressively, from the 2021 merger of equals with First Midwest to the May 2025 acquisition of Bremer Bank, which pushed total assets to roughly $70 billion. Revenue (net interest income + fees, FY2025) is ~$2.9 billion. If you believe that thesis holds, the real questions become position sizing and overlap, not timing. The main risk to that view: Old National is sensitive to interest rates: net interest income (about $2.4 billion in 2025) is its largest revenue line, so falling rates, deposit repricing, or an inverted yield curve can compress the margin and earnings. Whether ONB is a buy comes down to whether you believe the thesis. This is informational, not a recommendation, and Walnut is not an investment adviser.
Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ: ONB) is the holding company for Old National Bank, a super-regional bank headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, with a large operational base in Chicago and a footprint concentrated across the Midwest. Following its May 2025 acquisition of Bremer Bank, the company holds roughly $70 billion in total assets and more than $30 billion in wealth assets under management, making it among the top 25 banking companies headquartered in the United States and one of the largest commercial banks in the Midwest. Like most banks, it earns money in two broad ways: net interest income, the spread between what it earns on loans and securities and what it pays on deposits (roughly $2.4 billion on a full-year 2025 basis), and noninterest fee income from wealth management, mortgage banking, treasury management, and capital markets. Old National's story in recent years has been one of growth through acquisition, capped by its 2021 merger of equals with First Midwest Bancorp and the May 1, 2025 acquisition of Minnesota-based Bremer, which added about $16.3 billion of assets, $11.1 billion of loans, and $12.9 billion of deposits for roughly $1.3 billion in stock and cash. For full-year 2025 the company reported net income applicable to common shares of about $653.1 million and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.79, or about $808.6 million and $2.21 on an adjusted basis that strips out merger charges, which management described as record adjusted net income and EPS. The net interest margin ran around 3.65% in the fourth quarter and the adjusted efficiency ratio was about 48.8% for the year, both signs of a profitable, cost-disciplined operation whose next chapter depends on integrating Bremer and continuing to scale fee-based wealth revenue.
What's the case for buying ONB?
1. Growth through acquisition and scale.
Old National has expanded aggressively, from the 2021 merger of equals with First Midwest to the May 2025 acquisition of Bremer Bank, which pushed total assets to roughly $70 billion. Greater scale spreads fixed costs like technology and compliance across a bigger balance sheet and deepens the bank's presence across the Midwest. The strategy has consistently added loans, deposits, and fee revenue, though it also raises the stakes on integration execution.
2. Solid margin and cost discipline.
The net interest margin ran around 3.65% in the fourth quarter of 2025, a healthy level for a regional bank, and the full-year adjusted efficiency ratio was about 48.8%, meaning the bank spent under 49 cents to generate each dollar of revenue. That combination of a decent spread on lending and lean operating costs is what drove record adjusted net income and EPS for 2025. Sustaining margin as deposit costs and rates move is the key variable.
3. Growing fee-based wealth revenue.
Beyond lending, Old National earns fees through its 1834 wealth management arm, mortgage banking, treasury management, and capital markets. Wealth and trust fees rose roughly 12% year over year in 2025 as assets under management exceeded $30 billion, and management has targeted lifting fee-based income toward a larger share of total revenue. Growing these streams reduces the bank's dependence on the interest-rate cycle alone and adds more stable, recurring revenue.
4. Capital return through dividends.
Old National pays a quarterly cash dividend (recently $0.145 per share, about $0.58 annualized) for a yield of roughly 2.2%, giving shareholders an income component alongside any share-price movement. The bank has maintained its dividend through its acquisition-driven growth, and a reasonable payout ratio leaves room to keep funding both the dividend and balance-sheet expansion. Steady capital return is a core part of the appeal of many regional-bank stocks.
What are the risks to ONB?
Old National is sensitive to interest rates: net interest income (about $2.4 billion in 2025) is its largest revenue line, so falling rates, deposit repricing, or an inverted yield curve can compress the margin and earnings. As an economically cyclical regional bank, it is exposed to the credit cycle, where a recession or regional downturn would raise loan losses, particularly in commercial real estate and commercial lending that make up a meaningful part of its book. Its acquisitive strategy carries integration and execution risk, since merging Bremer's systems, staff, and customers while retaining deposits and controlling costs is not guaranteed, and future deals add more. Geographic concentration in the Midwest means regional economic weakness hits harder than for a nationally diversified bank. Finally, broader risks (deposit competition, fintech disruption, regulatory and capital requirements, and market volatility affecting its securities portfolio) can all weigh on results.
How is ONB valued? (as of JULY 2026)
Snapshot for ONB as of July 2026, sourced from Yahoo Finance and may be delayed. Valuation figures move with price and earnings; verify the current numbers with your broker before deciding.
- Revenue (net interest income + fees, FY2025): ~$2.9 billion
- Net Interest Income (FY2025): ~$2.4 billion
- Net Income to Common (FY2025): ~$653 million GAAP (~$809 million adjusted)
- Diluted EPS (FY2025): $1.79 GAAP ($2.21 adjusted)
- Market Capitalization: ~$9.9 billion
- P/E Ratio (trailing): ~13
- Dividend Yield: ~2.2%, paid quarterly
Reading a regional bank means looking past a single earnings number to a few structural metrics. The net interest margin (around 3.65% in Q4 2025) shows how profitably the bank lends relative to its funding costs, and the efficiency ratio (an adjusted ~48.8% for 2025) measures how lean the operation is, where lower is better. Note the gap between GAAP EPS of $1.79 and adjusted EPS of $2.21, which reflects one-time merger and integration charges from the Bremer deal, so the adjusted figure is a cleaner read on underlying run-rate earnings. A trailing P/E near 13 is in the typical range for regional banks, which tend to trade at lower multiples than the broader market because their earnings are cyclical and rate-sensitive. The distinctive feature here is the growth-by-acquisition scale-up; the open question is how much of the Bremer benefit is already reflected in the share price versus still to be realized through integration.
How do you decide if ONB is a buy?
Rather than asking whether ONB is a buy in the abstract, it tends to help to answer four questions:
- Thesis: do you believe the case above, and is it still true today?
- Time horizon: a single stock can be volatile, so a longer horizon absorbs more of the swings.
- Position sizing: a thesis can be right and the sizing still wrong; decide how much of your portfolio one name should be.
- Overlap: check whether you already hold ONB indirectly through an index or sector ETF before adding more.
For the full picture, see the ONB stock guide (what the company does, the ETFs that hold it, similar stocks, and the themes it fits). In Walnut you can ask its AI about ONB against your real portfolio and see your actual exposure before deciding.
The bottom line on ONB
The bottom line: Old National Bancorp's story right now is Growth through acquisition and scale, with revenue (net interest income + fees, fy2025) at ~$2.9 billion. If you believe that narrative continues, the call is about sizing ONB sensibly and checking overlap with what you own; if you doubt it (the risk: old National is sensitive to interest rates: net interest income (about $2.4 billion in 2025) is its largest revenue line, so falling rates, deposit repricing, or an inverted yield curve can compress the margin and earnings.), it is not for you. Decide from the thesis, not the ticker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.
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FAQ
Is ONB a good stock to buy right now?
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The case for Old National Bancorp right now is Growth through acquisition and scale, with revenue (net interest income + fees, fy2025) at ~$2.9 billion. If you believe that thesis holds, ONB is a way to own it and the real questions are sizing and overlap, not timing; the main risk to that view is old National is sensitive to interest rates: net interest income (about $2.4 billion in 2025) is its largest revenue line, so falling rates, deposit repricing, or an inverted yield curve can compress the margin and earnings. So it comes down to whether you believe the thesis. Walnut is not an investment adviser and this is not a recommendation.
What does Old National Bancorp do?
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Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ: ONB) is the holding company for Old National Bank, a super-regional bank headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, with a large operational base in Chicag
What are the main risks of ONB?
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Old National is sensitive to interest rates: net interest income (about $2.4 billion in 2025) is its largest revenue line, so falling rates, deposit repricing, or an inverted yield curve can compress the margin and earnings. As an economically cyclical regional bank, it is exposed to the credit cycle, where a recession or regional downturn would raise loan losses, particularly in commercial real estate and commercial lending that make up a meaningful part of its book. Its acquisitive strategy carries integration and execution risk, since merging Bremer's systems, staff, and customers while retaining deposits and controlling costs is not guaranteed, and future deals add more. Geographic concentration in the Midwest means regional economic weakness hits harder than for a nationally diversified bank. Finally, broader risks (deposit competition, fintech disruption, regulatory and capital requirements, and market volatility affecting its securities portfolio) can all weigh on results.
What does Old National Bancorp do?
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Old National Bancorp is the holding company for Old National Bank, a super-regional bank headquartered in Evansville, Indiana, with a major operational base in Chicago and a footprint concentrated across the Midwest. After its May 2025 acquisition of Bremer Bank, it holds roughly $70 billion in assets. It offers commercial and consumer banking, mortgages, treasury management, capital markets, and wealth management, and earns money mainly from net interest income plus fee income.
Does ONB pay a dividend?
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Yes. Old National pays a quarterly cash dividend, recently $0.145 per share (about $0.58 annualized), for a yield of roughly 2.2%. The bank has maintained its dividend through its acquisition-driven growth, and a moderate payout ratio leaves room to keep funding both the dividend and balance-sheet expansion. Dividend amounts and timing are set by the board each quarter.
What was the Bremer Bank acquisition?
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On May 1, 2025, Old National completed its acquisition of Minnesota-based Bremer Financial and its Bremer Bank subsidiary. At closing Bremer had about $16.3 billion of total assets, $11.1 billion of loans, and $12.9 billion of deposits, and the consideration totaled roughly $1.3 billion in Old National stock and cash. The deal pushed Old National to about $70 billion in total assets and expanded its Midwest presence, especially in Minnesota and the upper Midwest.
How did Old National perform in 2025?
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For full-year 2025 Old National reported net income applicable to common shares of about $653.1 million and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.79, or roughly $808.6 million and $2.21 on an adjusted basis that strips out merger charges. Management described the results as record adjusted net income and EPS, with a fourth-quarter net interest margin around 3.65% and an adjusted efficiency ratio of about 48.8% for the year. The gap between GAAP and adjusted figures reflects one-time Bremer integration costs.
Walnut is informational and is not an investment adviser. This page is educational and not a recommendation to buy or sell ONB; figures are approximate and dated, and your own situation, time horizon, and risk tolerance should drive any decision. Verify current data before investing.