Flat EPS, flat revenues, share count up slightly. Price/Book is 1.8. Not sure why we got a move from 13 to 14, but I can never figure this one out.
Vince
Check out $WFC, $C, $JPM, $KRE… Bank stocks are ripping.
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I see that now - some much more than others. JPM was on my watch list - wish it had been on my bought last week list!
One good thing - it boosted FFNW over $13 for a nice exit point and a significant return in both my long and short term holdings.
Vince
JPM is close to full value. My favorite is Citi and WFC. Of course they both moved up. But Citi still trades at discount to BV, any potential regulatory relief will be double boost to Citi, they have a huge international business and a big investment banking business. In both ways they can benefit.
WFC is under asset cap for over 6 years now. There is an expectation it will be lifted in 2025, under trump administration the timeline could speed up.
TFSL is up 10% since March and over 15% since early April. It’s getting close to breaking 13.50. I don’t see anything driving this increase and we are still below the $14 level, which based on recent history, would be a place to consider dumping any income positions.
Vinnie g
Yes, this one is pretty range-bound. It’s had a strong bounce in the last few weeks – good money if you were buying in early April.
Jim
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TFSL is an enigma. I have owned for a long time and always thought something would happen but they quit buying back any significant shares a while ago. I guess they don’t want the public float to become too small?
I don’t think they have any interest in doing the second step for mutual conversion and just become a bank stock.
So for now, they just go about their business and seem to be content making a decent profit and giving that back to shareholders through dividends. I think management likes their little kingdom with no real pressure to grow or bump stock price.
Having said that, it feels like a pretty safe dividend paying machine. Latest quarter was $0.07 in earnings which has been flat for at least a year now. Not any higher but not any lower. If you compare that to the dividend of $0.2825 you might think they are eroding equity but since only 20% of the stock is out in the public and 80% is held by the mutual company, the relative earnings is actually about $0.35 /quarter. To me this means that they are paying 9% in dividends and it is covered by the earnings and they still have significant amounts of equity in the mutual company.
In short, not the most exciting company around and not likely to grow significantly without a management change (in attitude at least) but a pretty safe place to hide some capital that pays a very nice dividend.
Anybody have any real concerns with the company or should I just go back to sleep and collect dividends?
Randy
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One of the quirks with these mutual companies - and there are some insurance companies set up the same way - is that the management can be passed down from generation to generation in a single family. Here in Cincy where I live, a huge mutual insurance company, Western & Southern, has been governed by the Williams family for generations. TFSL is run by Marc Stefanski, whose parents started the company. He has stated that the final step in the conversion was for the next generation of Stefanskis to undertake. He is 70 years old and may not retire any time soon, electing to collect his $3+ million salary for a while longer.
So this company is half in and half out, neither fish nor fowl. Greatly misunderstood - at least one dividend rating service indicates that the dividend is very unsafe with a 400+% payout ratio (I’m guessing they are not properly assessing the 80% ownership by the mutual company in their calculations).
I am right there in bed with you sleeping.
Vinnie G
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Hi Vinnie, another Cincinnati boy here (actually Northern Ky now).
but I agree 100%. In my opinion, Marc Stefanski just wants to put his smiling mug at the beginning of each quarterly report and collect his salary and probably substantial dividends.
Randy.
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