Here is a direct quote from the conference call from Joe Ficalora, the company’s CEO, “The fourth quarter was notable not only for the continued strength of our earnings and margin, but also for our increased efficiency and high volume of loan production and the continuing improvement of our asset quality. Notwithstanding the decline in market interest rates over the course of the quarter, we generated fourth quarter earnings of $117 million or $0.27 per diluted share. Our earnings provided a 1.23% return on average tangible assets and a 15.89% return on average tangible stockholders equity.
The continued strength of our earnings is reflected in our solid capital position, with tangible stockholders equity representing 7.95% of total assets excluding accumulated other comprehensive loss”.
I like regional banks because many of them are lagging the moves in big banks. Now generally, you want to chase the strongest stocks in a sector which would appear to be BAC, JPM, WFC, GS and MS, but many regional banks are extremely well capitalized and offering higher yields. NYB is expected to grow EPS by roughly 4.6% for the next three years.
NYB broke $13.65 today which was a key level. It then broke out of its opening day range at $13.75 to trend upwards to $13.99 where it saw pressure. It retested VWAP before the close and then recaptured the $13.85-$13.87. Someone bought 557,000 shares on the offer at the close. This is very bullish in my opinion. Another 2,000,000 and 1,000,000 shares traded after hours. Stock traded 11M shares today which is 2x normal volume.
