Longtime Bank Analyst Moving Up at Donaldson

Veteran bank analyst Frank R. DeSantis Jr. is assuming new duties as associate director of research at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp.

Mr. DeSantis, 35, has tracked bank stocks for 11 years, half of that time at DLJ. Coverage of major banks he now follows will be shifted to his colleague, Thomas K. Brown.

Mr. DeSantis said Friday that his new job includes developing DLJ's younger analysts and improving the firm's research technology platform.

The analyst said he leaves full-time coverage of bank stocks with mixed emotions. "This year, I've been way too cautious on the banks as a whole, but my top picks have been some of the best performers in the group," he noted.

His picks: First Chicago NBD, Synovus Financial Corp., Chase Manhattan Corp. and Citicorp. Mr. DeSantis said both the best and hardest thing he had done as an analyst was to keep recommending shares of Citicorp over the past five years.

He recommended the New York bank in October 1991 at $14. Its shares then fell to a decade-low $8.625 in December 1991, but on Friday traded at $104.875. "Staying with it through $20, $40 and $60 was the difficult part," he said Friday.

Mr. DeSantis previously worked as an bank analyst at PaineWebber Inc., Smith Barney Inc. and National Bank of Detroit, now part of First Chicago NBD.

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