| First Niagara's HSBC Pain and Gain and Bubble-Era Mortgage Wave Imperils CMBS as $19 Billion Due: Credit Markets |
| News - Financial News |
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For long-term shareholders of First Niagara Financial Group(FNFG), the company's deal to purchase 195 branches from HSBC (HBC) has been a very rough ride, but the shares are attractively priced for investors looking for a solid growth and income play. First, the bad news: The Buffalo lender late Wednesday priced a $450 million common equity offering at $8.50 a share, and also priced a $350 million preferred offering with a very high coupon of 8.625%. While the dilution to common equity was lower than the original capital raise in the range of $750 million to $800 million the company announced back in August, First Niagara also cut the quarterly dividend on its common shares in half to 8 cents. The shares were down 2% in early trading Thursday to $8.82. Sterne Agee analyst Matthew Kelley -- who said in a report on Oct. [Read the full article] There’s an old saying on Wall Street about insider buying: there are many possible reasons to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy. Back on November 30, Washington Federal Inc.’s Director, Mark Tabbutt, invested $123,405.00 into 9,500 shares of WFSL, for a cost per share of $12.99. Bargain hunters tend to pay particular attention to insider buys like this one, because presumably the only reason an insider would take their hard-earned cash and use it to buy stock of their company in the open market, is that they expect to make money. Click here to find out which 9 other dividend bargains you can buy cheaper than insiders, at DividendChannel.com In trading on Thursday, bargain hunters could buy shares of Washington Federal Inc. (NASD: WFSL) and achieve a cost basis even cheaper than Tabbutt, with shares changing hands as low as $12.98 per share. Washington Federal Inc. shares are currently trading down about 2.5% on the day. [Read the full article] SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwire -12/08/11)- BofI Holding, Inc. (NASDAQ: BOFI - News), parent company of BofI Federal Bank, announced today that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend on BofI Holding, Inc.'s 6.0% Series B Non-Cumulative Perpetual Convertible Preferred Stock ("Series B Preferred") for the quarter ending December 31, 2011. Series B Preferred shares issued prior to October 1, 2011, shall receive $15.00 per share. Series B Preferred shares issued on or after October 1, 2011, will receive a prorated amount based on the number of days the shares were outstanding as of January 1, 2012, which is the record date. The payment date will be January 17, 2012.BofI Holding, Inc. is the holding company for BofI Federal Bank, a nationwide branchless bank that provides financing for single and multifamily residential properties, small-to-medium size businesses in target sectors, and selected specialty finance receivables. [Read the full article] 
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