Financials in Turmoil? Someone Forgot to Tell These Eleven Pennsylvania Banks

Amidst turmoil in the financial sector this week and over the past year, the following is a list of Pennsylvania-based banks and financial services companies with market caps over $100M that have recorded stock price gains over the past year.

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The 11 companies are listed in descending order by 52-week stock price performance and include the following top performers: Univest – biggest gainer at 38%, First Commonwealth (which I wrote about 15 months ago with a yield over 6%) – biggest dividend yield at 5.4%, and PNC Financial – biggest market cap at $25.3B. With Dow component American International Group (AIG) down over 30% on Friday, and other blow-ups this week such as Lehman Brothers (LEH) and Washington Mutual (WM), the strength in these Keystone State banks is notable and reflects investor confidence in their management and business fundamentals.

Company Name (Ticker), 52-Week Change, Market Cap, Dividend Yield

1. Univest Corp. of PA (UVSP) +38.0%, $380M, 2.7%
2. Beneficial Mutual Bancorp (BNCL) +27.9%, $991M, 0%
3. Republic First Bancorp (FRBK) +23.2%, $108M, 0%
4. Citizens & Northern Corp. (CZNC) +21.4%, $197M, 4.4%
5. First Commonwealth Financial (FCF) +15.7%, $924M, 5.4%
6. Bryn Mawr Bank Corp. (BMTC) +6.7%, $199M, 2.4%
7. PNC Financial Services (PNC) +6.6%, $25.3B, 3.6%
8. Abington Bancorp (ABBC) +6.5%, $248M, 2.0%
9. S&T Bancorp (STBA) +3.5%, $954M, 3.6%
10. ESB Financial Corp. (ESBF) +2.9%, $126M, 3.9%
11. Northwest Bancorp (NWSB) +1.7%, $1.4B, 3.1%

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Disclosure: None

Comments

[sickofthehype:]

As with any sector there are shining stars. I've personally been buying select CA community banks that have ZERO exposure to crazy financing.

2008 Sep 14 12:28 PM

[Reinko:]

Of course there are banks with even rising stock prices, just like there are banks that are severly hurt in their stock values but will survive anyway.
All you need in a bank is one or more senior bankers that say "We do not participate in weird stuff".

And then the weird title of this article: Someone 'forgot' to tell it to these banks... After my humble opinion these banks did see what was coming far better compared to those big Wall Street banks.

Lets leave it with that.

This all does not take away that the entire US financial sector could easily see another decline of 50% in combined market cap.

And when you combine total wiped out market cap from the 11 worst performing banks to these 11 best performing banks, the picture is clear: Well deserved market cap destruction wins it from the smart long time bankers...

2008 Sep 14 03:34 PM