Maxim Group Analyst Had a $500 Price Target on SVB. The Stock Went to One Cent.

Wall Street's SVB coverage was a masterclass in herd mentality. Of the 24 analysts tracking Silicon Valley Bank, half still had buy ratings days before the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. But nobody was more bullish than Maxim Group's Michael Diana, who maintained a $500 price target—nearly double the trading price—right up until the FDIC seized the bank on March 10, 2023.

The warning signs were all there: a deposit base concentrated entirely in cash-burning tech startups, massive bond holdings getting obliterated by rising rates, and a funding model that assumed VCs would keep writing checks forever. Morgan Stanley's Manan Gosalia was the lone analyst with a sell rating, but even he was stunned by the speed of the collapse.

SVB's final chapter took 48 hours. After announcing a $2 billion capital raise on March 8, a Twitter-fueled bank run drained $42 billion in deposits in a single day. The stock's last close was $106. When it resumed trading on the OTC market, it hit one cent. Diana's $500 target missed by approximately 49,900%.

He declined to comment.