First Business Financial At 5x EPS Should Be A $52 Stock

Gary Townsend submits:There are few true growth stories in American banking today, but one mid-sized New York City-based commercial bank surely fits the description. Tuesday, Signature Bank (SBNY) reported 4Q10 operating EPS of $0.70 (GAAP EPS was $0.72), handily beating the $0.64 consensus estimate. Earnings accelerated again. In 2010, this $2.2 billion market cap company earned $2.30 per share on an operating basis, up +43.3% from $1.61 in 2009, when operating EPS grew 20.6%.

A Federal Reserve panel of bankers warned policy makers in February that record stimulus was pushing financial institutions to take on more credit risk and creating a “bubble” in the price of U.S. farmland.

Only days after being chosen by Consumerist voters as Worst Company In America for the second year in a row, Electronic Arts is not gaining man

TORONTO — When investors poured tens of millions into Ontario investment company New Solutions Inc., they were assured their money would be safe, and would provide “above market returns” through investments backed by receivables from companies with solid “A” credit ratings or better.

By Bret Jensen:Bank stocks have had a very difficult 2011, vastly underperforming the overall market all year. I believe 2012 should be a much better year, especially for small and regional banks. They should be less affected by all the new financial regulations being applied to large financial institutions. They also do not have investment banking and trading arms that will have to be reduced or divested.

By Zacks.com: By Ann Heffron, CFA First Business Financial Services, Inc. (FBIZ) knocked it out of the park in the second quarter, posting diluted operating EPS of $0.68, excluding one-time tax benefits of $0.29 per share. This was $0.16 better than our $0.52 estimate and up 47% from the prior-year quarter.

We are maintaining our Outperform on First Business Financial Services, Inc. (FBIZ). Our target price is now $11.50 (down from $12.00 previously), generating a total return of almost 27%. FBIZ posted excellent second quarter diluted EPS of $0.46 (before a $2.7 million writedown of goodwill), up 349% from the $0.10 earned last year.