Dallas, Texas 10/24/2013 (Financialstrend) – People’s United Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:PBCT) announced its 3 quarter results on October 17. Post the conference call on October 18, the stock lost close to 5% of its market value in comparison to its previous day close. The highlight of the entire earnings report was the fact that 3Q earnings per share came in at $0.2 per share and was off the mark set by analysts by $0.01.
This saw the stock of the loan and savings provider to plummet before recovering over the next two days. As of close of business on October 23, the stock was trading at $14.55 per share up 0.76% from its previous day close. The loan provider had indicated that its mortgage business has shrunk which in turn had reduced the earnings from interest during the three months of operations which ended on October 30. The underlying theme of the entire call was around the lack of growth seen in the stock and in revenue.
Investors in the stock would be puzzled since the management has tried to do its bit in order to support the stock price. It had spent close to $30 million toward purchasing 2.1 million shares during the past 30 days. While the management reiterated their commitment to continue buy back more stock, analysts are questioning the rational since the price company is paying is on par with book value.
Over the previous 12 months the loan provider has managed to lend close to $1.01 billion and generate net income of $238 million in the past 12 months. In the same period, it has paid out $0.65 as dividend per share translating to a 4.47% dividend yield. It also recorded drop of 4.7% in loan advancement in 3Q which is a troublesome sign. Due to these weaknesses the stock has shed close to 2.4% in market value over last week trading.
