I haven’t read it very carefully. Has anyone else looked at it, yet?
Share Repurchase Program
On September 28, 2023, the Company announced the adoption of a new repurchase program of up to an additional 100,000 shares of its common stock. As of October 30, 2023, 68,000 shares have been repurchased, reducing the number of shares outstanding to 5,026,000.
Financial Highlights at September 30, 2023
At September 30, 2023, the Company had 5,094,000 shares outstanding, resulting in a tangible book value per share of $14.45.
At September 30, 2023, the Bank’s leverage ratio was 21.4%.
Edward H. Schaefer, President and CEO, commented, “The current rate environment has put pressure on bank stock prices. Using our strong capital position, our stock buyback programs continue to be a very attractive way to increase shareholder value. Our conservative underwriting and disciplined approach to loan and deposit pricing will help us focus on margin and credit quality.”
Income Statement and Balance Sheet Overview
Total interest and dividend income increased $837,000 or 26.4%, to $4.0 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $3.2 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The increase is the result of loan growth and more favorable loan pricing on new and renewed deals.
Total interest expense increased $1.1 million or 432.8%, to $1.3 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $250,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2022, as a result of increased market rates and competitive pressures on deposits. Net interest margin for the three months ended September 30, 2023 was 3.5%, compared to 3.9% at September 30, 2022.
The credit loss provision was $0 for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $93,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2022. At September 30, 2023, our allowance for credit losses was $3.2 million, or 1.25%, of total loans.
Noninterest income increased $9,000, or 3.6%, to $257,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $248,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2022.
Noninterest expense decreased $18,000, or 0.8%, to $2.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, compared to $2.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2022. The decrease was primarily due to a decrease in technology expenses of $19,000.
Total assets increased $4.1 million, or 1.3%, to $327.2 million at September 30, 2023, from $323.0 million at December 31, 2022, resulting primarily from an increase in our loan portfolio. Accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of income taxes was $3.8 million at September 30, 2023, up from $3.1 million at December 31, 2022.
Nonaccrual loans were $103,000, or 0.04% of total loans, at September 30, 2023, and $146,000, or 0.06% of total loans, at December 31, 2022.
I had not - but assuming constant BV for the month of October, with repurchases, the BV per share is now 14.65. At 11.07/share, that’s a price to book of 0.76.
Perhaps, I should also net repurchase costs out of of BV? If they earned ~130k in the month (run rate for last quarter) and spent 750k for repurchases (68k x 11/sh), BV might have dropped by a dime or so. Still P/BV under 80%
Their capital position remains strong and they manage to keep eking out buybacks, little by little. It’s really striking to see how much they’ve repurchased since they’ve been public, and yet equity/assets still remain over 20%. So they’re running this key part of the thrift playbook well.
It seems like their held to maturity isn’t much of a concern (it’s not ballooning) and their discipline on profitability is decent, too. Escrows for non-paying loans and write-offs are not swelling dramatically, either.
Anyone disagree with that? (I may not have looked in all the right places for signs of weakness.)
I think the real difference is that TFSL doesn’t have to pay higher interest rates on the accounts of everyone who doesn’t specifically opt into the CD. IOW, if they raised rates on savings accounts, then everyone gets it. But if only a select few move a TFSL savings/MMA to the CD (because it takes work, etc), then they have to pay a lower total amount of interest, while still potentially attracting net new deposits from outside the bank.
What banks offering on money market is unbelievably low. The deposits are walking, of course slowly. Slowly, slowly, slowly then suddenly. Many bankers are not understanding you can move your money with couple of clicks. Banks are relying on people’s inertia.
If interest rates stays higher, many banks are going to be in trouble.
Anybody think the death of the chairman, James Tarantino, might be being interpreted as a sign the bank will be sold soon, and is why the share price is up lately?
I’m just flapping my mouth about FFBW, and it needs all of 500 shares to make it move up.
Also, thrift conversion MSVB – one of three highlighted on the ZOTC site – just announced a takeover. It joins CNNB and FFNW in takeout land – both of which announced recent takeovers.
It strikes me as peculiar, since regulators have become really aggressive about opposing “everything” but maybe the regulators are just going to be focused on the big boys and the SVB failure is still fresh enough to prevent much hemming and hawing over these.
The stock popped from just under 10 to 13.60 - that’s 1.25x book using TMF stats. The deal is ‘expected’ to close at $15-17 per share and the quotes are there because it seems there is more uncertainty with this one vs. FFNW. The announcement clearly states that the distribution to MSVB shareholders will take place some months after the deal closes and that shareholders should not expect that the final price will be in the range they specified. Given the pop, does it make sense to hold at this point - the dividend is 1.8% and if the deal closes at middle of the range, there’s only 18% more to gain from here.
Is the data available for folks like us to determine the value of this deal at this point?
Vince, there is certainly plenty of uncertainty here as they wind down the business of MSVB. And that’s leading to the significant discount. The amount of upside from here is significant. I don’t know if there’s any significant other information that investors have access to besides publicly available filings. We may get some further SEC filings on this in the days ahead.
