I am interested in anyone's thoughts on the high (trailing and forward) PE and payout rates of PBCT. I am looking for
a solid bank that can be a winner when we come out of this
financial mess and PBCT's cash position caught my eye.
Thanks. kp
Be carefull. Many mutual funds are required to hold a percentage of banking stocks in their portfolios to remain consistent with their prospectus and stated mission. PBCT is a safe stock to own so many of the funds that are compelled to own banking stocks will buy it, indeed, they even bid it up to a pretty high PE. During the past month many banking stocks have made bigs gains and PBCT has drifted lower. I would guess that this smart money is moving away from the boring, high PE PBCT to more enticing banking opportunities. Up market days have generally been bad PBCT days, good banking days have generally been bad PBCT days. Even look at today, down sentiment in the market and PBCT moves up for no apparent reason. When the recovery is solidly underway PBCT is likely to fade even faster. We hear about the PBCT war chest and all the available capital, but management is not capable of deploying that capital. Their only aquisition, Chittendon, was received with a yawn and a continuing downward drift. Its time to move out of PBCT not into it!!!!!!!
PBCT indeed has had less stock share price volatility than most of the other larger cap bank stocks and despite its less impressive rise in recent weeks, on a net basis is down less than others based upon current price versus 52 week high/ low
Bank America current price $11.86 off 70% from 52week high which had a range of $2.53-39.50; Citibank current price $3.46 off 85% from 52week high which had a range of $0.93-23.50; Comerica current price $21.75 off 48% from 52week high which had a range of $11.72-42.00;
JP Morgan current price $34.55 off 32% from 52week high which had a range of $14.96-50.63;
New Alliance $12.84 off 29% from 52week high which had a range of $9.36-17.98; Regions Bank $4.00 off 80% from 52week high which had a range of $2.35-19.80; Webster Bank $7.77 off 75% from 52week high which had a range of $2.85-31.00; Wells Fargo $24.72 off 45% from 52week high which had a range of 7.80 - 44.75; Peoples Bank $15.61 off 28% from 52week high which had a range of $13.92-21.76;
So I guess if you were a long term investor Peoples did not perform too poorly compared with most of the others mentioned. While they have move up well off most of their lows they still lag in general compared to Peoples.
Currently most of the money has been going into the large national banks that took the biggest hit,the local banks have been steady or dropped slightly,PBCT dropped not far from it`s multi-year low,not worried about this one-strongest bank in the Northeast and this bank didn`t have to borrow money from the Gov.
I am long and adding each month via the DRIP, but I am also concerned that the earnings are less than the Divi. The earnings have to rise quickly or they will have to cut the dividend.
Means nothing...this bank has a 20% TCE ratio...right now, the market is rewarding junk stocks and looking for earnings from the troubled bank. We're waiting for PBCT to get off their asses and buy another bank and leverage up the pristine balance sheet.
This is a very conservative bank stock investment (just look at how it did when bank stocks got slaughtered from Sept-March and how it's done since bank junk moved up from March-June).
Take a look at RF, WBS, and FITB too. Much more aggressive stocks, but they give you balance.
Capital? Capital! We don't need to raise no stinkin' capital!
The giant banks gotta' get their sheets lookin' like PBCT's before they can get their divvy up from a penny a share. Maybe by 2010.
That's why BAC, WFC, JPM are down today and PBCT is up.
PBCT's 3.9% is looking good, plus, unlike the giant banks, People's will grow.