Since looking at how many troubled banks are out there and their geographic distribution,
I've been focusing my attention on financial issues that offer more
bank for the buck. These are banks that, largely because of
conservative lending practices and capital management, have not
followed their sector lower and, indeed, are up on the year.
I
identified the following nine banks by screening for year-to-date
performance and weighted relative performance with the help of the
excellent Barchart site.
These issues are trading relatively close to their 52-week highs in a
market that has been nothing short of brutal for banking stocks. After
all, the Banking Index ($BKX) is down over 30% this year, and that's
after the recent solid bounce from the market lows.
These stocks
are the result of an initial screen; they're not buy recommendations in
themselves. Please exercise due diligence before adding to your
portfolio. Following each bank name and symbol is the percentage price
change on the year and the approximate dividend yield. Only shares
paying a dividend in excess of 2% were included in the screen; it's
always nice to have a positive carry when you're waiting for a market
turnaround:
Univest Corp. of PA (UVSP): 24.29%; 2.9%
Citizens Northern (CZNC): 43.38%; 3.8%
Community Bancsystem (CBU): 16.81%; 3.5%
First Bancorp (FNLC): 27.01%; 4.0%
First Financial Bankshares (FFIN): 19.98%; 3.0%
First Financial Corp. (THFF): 35.66%; 2.3%
Mainsource Financial (MSFG): 14.37%; 3.3%
City Holding (CHCO): 29.41%; 3.2%
Hancock Holdings (HBHC): 16.36%; 2.2%
There
are many more banking shares that are up on the year. A large
proportion are located in the northeast, where overbuilding and housing
price collapses have not been as prevalent as in the west and
southeast. If these shares can keep their heads above water during the
most difficult of times and can maintain healthy balance sheets, they
should be poised to make loans and prosper in a general economic
recovery.
Originally posted at: http://traderfeed.blogspot.com/
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