24/7 Wall St. » CSE

The 52-Week Low Club (CSE)(SGY)(CRA)(HERO)

247wallst — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:52:48 +0000

CapitalSource (CSE) Ratings cut from Fitch. Drops to $2.02 from 52-week high of $17.04.

Stone Energy (SGY) Posts a loss for the last quarter. Sells down to $5.30 from 52-week high of $73.96.

Celera Corp (CRA) Outlook is below estimates. Plunges to $6.76 from 52-week high of $17.56.

Hercules Offshore (HERO) Still dropping after booking large impairment. Down to $1.95 from 52-week high of $39.47.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Posted in HI/LOW Tagged: CRA, CSE, HERO, SGY

Which Financials May Slash Dividends Next? (WM, FMD, RWT, BAC, C, KEY, WB, SFI, CSE)

247wallst — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:33:44 +0000

Yesterday’s announcement that Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) about a dividend slash, layoffs, exit of sub-prime, and a capital raise was greeted with far less than joy. 24/7 Wall St. has already warned not to trust the "dividend safety net" after Fannie Mae’s (NYSE: FNM) recent dividend cut even though many banks were out saying they want to protect their dividends and that the dividends were safe in October and November. Companies say one thing but frequently end up doing something else entirely different.

First Marblehead recently slashed its dividend in half, and it was yielding roughly 6.2% before its dividend cut. The Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM) dividend of 10% or more was far to big to trust, so we put together a list of other financial stocks with high stated dividends now that the shares are off so much from their highs. We are not saying all of these will cut their dividends and we’d even expect to formally declare "our dividend is safe" in response. But these are the higher yielding dividends from financial companies that 247WallSt.com thinks could be at risk if the environment continues:

Redwood Trust Inc. (NYSE: RWT) is a company whose dividend we could argue is at risk. Its president is retiring next year (but staying on the board), it just paid out a special $2.00 dividend, declared its regular dividend of $0.75 and announced 5 million shares for a stock buyback plan all in early November. But then early in December it sold $122 million of common stock to "fund investment activities." It invests in real estate loans and asset-backed securities. At $36.42, its 52-week trading range is $24.07 to $66.60.

Of the major money center and larger regional banks, there are many yields that are incredibly far ahead of treasury yields because of large drops in underlying share prices. Keep in mind that many of these dividends can be and likely will be maintained, but if banks need to save cash and get their dividends temporarily down to a more realistic percentage then this is one alternative. Here is a partial list: Citigroup (NYSE: C) 6.3%, Wachovia (NYSE: WB) 5.9%, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) 5.6%, KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) 5.8%

iStar Financial Inc. (NYSE: SFI) just last week declared its normal $0.87 quarterly dividend and that is north of a 10.6% yield to today’s $32.50 handle (year range $25.25 to $52.87). Capital Source (NYSE: CSE) has an even higher yield and it just recently completed the voting approvals for its $400+ million buyout of TierOne (NASDAQ: TONE). Because that deal is still pending regulatory closing and with a 13% yield, we just have a hard time believing this can be maintained indefinitely. At $18.78, its 52-week trading range is $14.05 to $28.55.

If you wonder why there are no brokerage firms listed here, it is because they are serial ‘under-dividend’ payers. They may pay out $1 Billion or $2 Billion in year-end bonuses, but a 2% yield is actually high for the brokerage firm stocks.

The truth is that there are dozens more that could be under review as well, and we wanted to keep this list limited to a few of the larger companies out there in banking and lending that have ties to lending, mortgages, ABS, and CDO’s. We do not expect that these will all cut their dividends. But we also know that sectors tend to cut and act in unison and are often all lumped together for better and for worse. The problems in these sectors are not merely isolated events.

With an FOMC decision to cut rates less than two hours away, we do not expect the financial stocks to trade normally as if there was nothing going on.

Jon C. Ogg
December 11, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Pre-Market Analyst Calls (August 6, 2007)

247wallst — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 07:02:53 +0000

AMTD raised to Buy at UBS.
ANN raised to Hold at Citigroup.
AUTH started as Overweight at Lehman; started as Outperform at Bear Stearns.
CVH raised to Neutral at B of A.
CFR raised to Outperform at RBC.
CKFR cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
CSE cut to Outperform at JMP.
DFC cut to Mkt Perform at JMP.
ERTS raised to Outperform at Bear Stearns.
IMH cut to Hold at Deutsche Bank.
LUM cut to Underweight at JPMorgan.
MER raised to Buy at UBS.
MMR raised to Overweight at JPMorgan.
O raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
PRSP raised to Outperform at RBC.
PVG cut to Sector Perform at RBC.
SCOR started as Outperform at Credit Suisse; started as Hold at Jefferies; started as Mkt Perform at FBR; started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
SEP started as Overweight at Lehman; started as Buy at Citigroup.; started as Outperform at Wachovia.
SPG raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
SPRD started as Overweight at Lehman; started as Outperform at Piper Jaffray.
TTWO raised to Peer Perform at Bear Stearns.
VOD raised to Buy at Citigroup.

Jon C. Ogg
August 6, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

Earlybird Analyst Calls (May 21, 2007)

247wallst — Mon, 21 May 2007 06:18:43 +0000

AMGN reitr Neutral at Baird.
CAT reiterated Neutral at Baird.
CFC cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
CSE cut to Mkt Perform at FBR.
HOLX raised to Buy at B of A.
NILE cut to Sell at Jackson.
OHB raised to Mkt Perform at Wachovia.
PGIC started as Buy at Jefferies.
SIGM reitr Outperform at Baird.
SRP raised to Outperform at Wachovia.

Jon C. Ogg
May 21, 2007