More Secondary Offerings Hitting (CMA, SUSQ, VOLC)

247wallst — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:57:56 +0000

We have three secondary offerings of note today, with two having an impact in the stock. Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) is raising $800 million and Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUSQ) is raising $350 million. Those two are to exit the TARP. Then there is a small deal from Volcano Corporation (NASDAQ: VOLC), although that is for a shareholder exit. We have details on each offering below.

Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) is down 2% at $35.58 right after the open on 5.4 million shares. Average volume here is only 2.45 million shares. Comerica sold $800 million via 22,857,143 shares of common stock at $35.00 per share to repay the TARP. Its market cap is 5.4 billion and the 52-week range is $11.91 to $37.32.

Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: SUSQ) is also paying off the TARP… or is it the TRAP? The company announced last night that it was offering $300 million in common stock and $50 million in Cumulative Trust Preferred securities. Shares are down 4.2% at $8.70 on 130,000 shares after the open. Average volume is 990,000 shares, the market cap is $755 million, and the 52-week range is $3.78 to $10.92.

Volcano Corporation (NASDAQ: VOLC) is barely lower after it filed to sell up to 1,248,669 shares of common stock at a proposed max price of $20.87. These shares are for selling holders and can easily be absorbed by he market. The average volume is 576,000 shares, the 52-week range is $11.33 to $24.22, and the market cap is $1.15 billion.

JON C. OGG

Filed under: Banking, Secondary Offering Tagged: CMA, SUSQ, VOLC

S&P Looking For More Bank Losses (WFC, CMA, USB, BBT, RF, COF, FITB, HBAN, SNV, WTNY, FAS)

247wallst — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:40:14 +0000

Standard & Poor’s may still have at least some relevance in its debt ratings. This morning we saw a wave of downgrades at banks by the debt ratings agency on systematic-risk and non-systematic risk. We tried to shorten this up to the most concise report in rating groups as this is hitting many of the bank stocks pretty hard this morning. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), Comerica (NYSE: CMA), USBancorp (NYSE: USB), BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN), Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) and Whitney Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WTNY) were all in the wave of S&P downgrades. This news has the extremely volatile Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) triple leverage financial sector ETF down 7% at $8.60.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was cut to AA- from AA. It is off watch but the outlook is negative. Comerica (NYSE: CMA) was cut to A- from A, and it is off watch and the outlook is negative. USBancorp (NYSE: USB) was cut to A+ from AA, and it is off watch and the outlook is stable. BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT) was cut to A from A+, and is off watch and the outlook is stable.

Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was cut to BBB+ from A, and it is off watch but the outlook is negative. Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was cut to BBB from BBB+. Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was cut to BBB from A- and the outlook is negative. KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) was cut to BBB+ from A-, and is off watch and the outlook is negative.

Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN) is now junk. S&P cut it to BB+ from BBB, and it is off watch but the outlook is negative. Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) and Whitney Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WTNY) were also cut to Junk Rating.

Associated Banc Corp. (ASBC), Astoria Financial (AF), PNC Financial (PNC), Susquehanna (SUSQ), Valley National Bancorp (VLY), Webster Financial (WBS), and Wilmington Trust (WL) were also part of this major downgrade.

It seems that S&P has figured out that the future of banks will not be as good as things were in the past. It sees stress tests pointing to more pain ahead and losses above current expectations. S&P sees weaker operating conditions ahead. Before you go run into a panic about write-downs and losses, keep in mind that S&P has had many of these banks under review for more than six months. It is also not exactly as though S&P (and Moody’s for that matter) was ahead of the curve in catching the banking and lending crisis that got us where we are today.

Jon C. Ogg

Posted in Analyst Calls, Banking, Financial Stocks Tagged: AF, ASBC, BBT, CMA, COF, FAS, FITB, HBAN, PNC, RF, SNV, SUSQ, USB, VLY, WBS, WFC, WL, WTNY

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More Secondary Offerings Hitting (CMA, SUSQ, VOLC)

S&P Looking For More Bank Losses (WFC, CMA, USB, BBT, RF, COF, FITB, HBAN, SNV, WTNY, FAS)