Flushing Financial Stock: Low-Risk Loan Book With A 4% Dividend Yield (NASDAQ:FFIC)

Introduction

In a former write-up on Flushing Economic (NASDAQ:FFIC), I was in awe of the really robust bank loan portfolio owned by this New York focused financial institution. The normal LTV ratio of the genuine estate financial loans was fewer than 40% which in principle signifies that even if the benefit of the underlying house drops by 60%, the bank ought to be in a position to wander absent with out any loss. Of program some financial loans have higher LTV ratios than other financial loans but to see an common of much less than 40% is undoubtedly remarkable (and only .3% of the loans have an LTV ratio exceeding 75%). I have been holding an eye on the bank since then and I continue on to be amazed with how this fairly smaller financial institution is run.

Strong results in the first quarter, with quite minimal bank loan reduction provisions

Flushing Economic in truth even now is a somewhat tiny bank as the whole balance sheet is made up of less than $8.2B in assets when the fairness worth is a lot less than $700M. But you really do not have to be a large bank to be worthwhile, and Flushing was able to raise its internet fascination earnings in the first quarter of this 12 months.

Though the desire income diminished from $72.1M to $71.3M, the full amount of fascination expenses lowered at an even more rapidly rate, from $11.2M to $7.8M which resulted in an improve of the web curiosity earnings by almost 5% to $63.5M. Many thanks to the strong financial loan reserve and really low LTV ratios, the lender was at the time yet again ready to hold the allowance for loan reduction provisions pretty minimal: in the to start with quarter of this yr, it only recorded just below $1.4M in provisions.

As the financial institution is a ‘pure’ industrial bank hoping to make income on the variation concerning the fascination it pays on deposits and the fascination it prices on financial loans, the non-curiosity profits is extremely low ad just $1.3M in the first quarter. To be reasonable, this provided a $1.8M hit from the honest benefit adjustments on financial loans and that built the result search a little little bit worse than it basically is. In addition, the lender outlined it incurred about $4.3M of non-recurring charges in the 1st quarter.

The total volume of non-fascination expenditures remained somewhat stable (which is an achievement contemplating the inflationary stress we are looking at elsewhere which triggered salaries to maximize), and the base line reveals a pre-tax income of $24.6M. Soon after shelling out the taxes owed on this, the web money described by Flushing Economical in the to start with quarter of this 12 months was $18.2M for an EPS of $.58. On an annualized basis, the EPS could now be expected to exceed $2.30 this 12 months as the escalating fascination charges really should produce some added tailwinds for Flushing. On major of that, Flushing has been shopping for back shares which implies the net revenue will have to be divided more than less shares outstanding and that will also provide a nice boost to the for every-share effectiveness. Flushing a short while ago declared the improve of the full dimensions of the buyback method. The enterprise had .35M shares remaining below the past approval but the board of directors has improved the total total of shares that could be repurchased by 1M. And as FFIC is shopping for again inventory at a amount of all-around 20,000 shares for every 7 days, the bank should really be delighted to gobble up shares at just $22.

The recent quarterly dividend is $.22 for every share resulting in a generate of around 4%. Which is pretty excellent thinking about the payout ratio is fewer than 40% of the earnings.

Flushing is completely ready to acquire advantage of the bigger interest premiums

Most smaller banking institutions seem to be to be investing about 20-30% of their asset foundation in money or securities but Flushing Economic has only invested 13.5% of its stability sheet in those people belongings. And that’s good as just one could argue its exceptionally lower typical LTV ratio on the loan book means its mortgage book should really be safer than its friends as it can retain the personal loan losses limited.

As of the finish of March, only $26.3M of the financial loans had been categorised as ‘past due’ which is less than .4% of the whole total of loans remarkable ($6.6B). The overall allowance for personal loan losses by now recorded by the bank exceeds $37M so even if all financial loans would default and the financial institution would foreclose on the belongings without recouping a solitary dollar, the existing volume of loan reduction allowance really should already be enough to address those people losses. But all over again, with lower LTV ratios across the portfolio, Flushing ought to be in a very good posture to keep the fallout restricted.

Flushing Fiscal also defined why it thinks it is in a superior place to begin the present-day cycle of increasing desire fees as opposed to 2015. Its funding profile is now a lot more diversified with just 24.6% of the funding delivered by CDs and borrowings. Those people are usually increased-expense resources of funding and weigh on the internet desire money and that is why Flushing was not totally able to capture the positive aspects of the desire rate cycle in 2015 when in excessive of 50% of its funding sources arrived from CDs and borrowings.

In accordance to flushing, every single 50 base position boost in the interest prices with no a corresponding maximize in the deposit prices would add $5M for every 12 months to the web fascination cash flow. If we would now think the internet curiosity margin improves by 100 bp, it’s straightforward to see Flushing should be able to insert a couple of dozen cents for every yr to its base line many thanks to the bigger interest costs.

Investment decision thesis

I like the way the Flushing Economic administration is running the enterprise. Primarily, shopping for the stock of a financial institution is purchasing a basket of loans whilst hoping that basket is run very well by the administration. And it’s not generally effortless to obtain a lender whose basket of financial loans matches with your individual financial commitment standards.

One particular might despise New York authentic estate but with an ordinary LTV ratio of all-around 38%, Flushing Economical really should be fairly shielded from a deteriorating New York authentic estate current market. Flushing is at present buying and selling at just a fraction in excess of its tangible e-book worth, and I assume this is a very good minute to set up a very long posture. I have been seeking to create place options on FFIC but because of to the very very low volumes and huge spreads that hasn’t been profitable, so I should really possibly just get the stock outright.