UPDATE–OTC Grey market ticker is FGBIL.
Below are the details of the new preferred stock issue from small Louisiana banker First Guaranty Bancshares (FGBI).
This is a small bank of $2.5 billion in assets and a review of their financials showed them to be solid over the years, but just the same potential buyers should do their own due diligence. The company is closely held with insiders owning near 60% of the company.
As of this moment no OTC grey market ticker has been announced.
The pricing term sheet is here.
I put in several bids and then stopped chasing it. Missed out, possibly because of the weird way it was sold as first.
Bought some OCCPP as a consolation prize.
Even if you place orders of >100 at higher than ask, it may not help.
In TD u have bid price higher than ask price, and no executions! ?!?
I pass too on this.
This is a copy paste from TD:
Price $26.10
Bid 26.25
Ask 26.00
B/A Size 500×100
Day’s High 26.10
Day’s Low25.04
Volume 48,001
Just to see what is up, I put in a bid for a share at 26 and one for 25.80.
The 26 bid got a fill at 25.70, but the other didn’t fill (all on schwab). So, I am the proud owner of one share.
Not sure what to make of it.
When you offer ask price or higher it must be filled so the auction begins in earnest. It’s not unusual to get a better price after price improvement. Also it’s not unusual to bypass other orders on the inefficient gray markets or pink sheets. And any market could bypass an order for less than 100 shares.
Thanks Martin,
I already know about bypassing orders, but this one just seemed to be operating strangely. I later got a fill on my other order (forgot to cancel it), so I will just flip them.
Yes there were odd things about the way it was displayed all day. Something was different and the displays weren’t prepared to handle it.
Right now at schwab: last 26.26 +0 Bid: 26.25 Ask: 0.00
TDA: B: 26.25 ask 25.00 last 25.00
WTHell?
Frothy, steamy, greedy, the market has become. That is why i’m trying to get more illiquids and pinned to par issues.
Mr Conservative–I spend all my time searching for ‘pinned to par’ issues and buying and selling them. In many ways it has been a great year–just not getting there the way I prefer (investing not trading).
Hey Tim. I got into penny pinching, just to feel good about putting cash to work. Bought 7,000 shares of UZB so i can get about ~ $300 in cash when redeemed on May 12. :-). It is not much, but the psychological effect will do me some good.
Private –
“The 26 bid got a fill at 25.70, but the other didn’t fill (all on schwab). So, I am the proud owner of one share.”
I’ll buy that share from you for $26.00.
I too like this little bank but unfortunately Iam going to have to take a “Rain Check” as I try not to take a position at this point in my life less than 4,000 shares and in all honesty its usually even 5 to 6,000. I remember a couple months ago trying to buy some Internet Bank and couldn’t even get a single share. Finally cancelled my order-Thank God, which I do every day.
Tim… Everything is to high to Buy,, and to easy to sell… sellers market, but I”am buying.???
Georges–I tried to buy this one, but haven’t had a fill–not going to chase more.
Good luck folks if you want to buy this! Had to spend an hour on the phone with Vanguard on the fixed securities desk to get an order placed for a few hundred shares. I was told that this is very thinly traded at this point by the representative with a bid of $25.50. At first Vanguard wanted to charge me $25 for a call in order, but the fixed desk waived it because you have to call them for grey market buys. Have a limit order in for a few hundred shares at $25.35. The casino has opened.
I have learned from experience one cannot buy new preferreds electronically on vanguard. on phone forever listening to sales and security pitches while price moves up. I opened a brokerage account and may soon move all my accounts to Fidelity.
See on Wells Fargo advisors last trade for FGBIl was $25.30 and for OCCPP $24.90
FGBIL is now bid at 25.40
Still no trades since 9:30
What is the most we should pay?
Anyone?
there is no Ask, so what is going on here? 23,000 shares already traded.
I have a very tiny bid in for $25.05. It is a real low ball in my opinion and I don’t expect to get it.
According to Schwab, the low is $25.04. That means my order went through since I had a $25.05 order. Of course not. Somebody did well (or the low is BS which would be my guess). Alas it was not Me.
Im not scared off by this issue, but its funny what you read in their annual letter. They earned $20 million and profits and bragged about it since they never earned even $15 million prior to last year….Then the details…
They took out a $100 million loan last March for a Covid risk bank run. It never happened so they invested the proceeds in bonds, then cashed out with $12 million profits in October selling the investments. So 60% of their profit came from a decision to prepare for a bank run on them. And this worry turned into the biggest profit generator they had all year. How ironic.
Exactly, there’s a old saying in there somewhere about right/lucky
Grid thanks much for digging that up: I saw the anomalous profit in 2020 but didn’t take the time to dig further. That aside, it looks slow and steady to me (not a bad thing).
Checked out the bank. Looks like a pretty solid little outfit. Low div. payout ratio, steady record of small but steady increases, and plenty of cash flow to cover. Earnings, as with most banks, are up and down, but no real bad years.
Common wouldn’t be too bad to hold, either.
FGBIL
Thanks Bob
Not up on Schwab yet. Will call the bond desk tomorrow. I usually don’t have any luck with them either finding these new issues or creating them in the system so I wind up catching up a day or two later (after the price rises).
One of the reasons I closed my account at Schwab after over 25 years with them. The other reason was they constantly mischaracterized qualified dividends on the 1099-div come tax time. Both of these problems have been documented by several readers of this site. I got tired of them and moved on.
is past_schwab a new nic for an old face?
Not setup on ME or Fidelity either, as of this morning. CUSIP is on Fidelity but not trading. Did notice under CUSIP that interst accrual date starts on 04-27-2021.
Fidelity.com and Vanguard.com all have bid of $25.5 before I was writing this post. Now it is changed to $25.51 at 10:43 a.m. EDT. Perhaps I should wait with tiny volume of 35,400. Then there have been quite a few bank preferreds with similar coupon all have gone above $26. I treasure my sleep. So, I went ahead and placed a bid for 300 shares at $25.51 at Vanguard. Then I probably will set my alarm to see what happens. I suppose I could sell some defacto eREIT preferreds such as UBP-H or sell some GLOP-A with some cap loss (sacrificing the current fantastic yield) later.
Thanks to Tim and all who posted on this BEST income investing WEB on earth.
Keeping on going up. Then tiny volume. These market makers. It could be like
SPKEP, electric reseller or fake utility preferred (I am totally out of this one) OR XOMAO which I could have paid a few cents too much. I will not up more with this ridiculous volume of 4,900 shares with bid of 100 @$25.60. Gridbird’s SESCF baby bond of a daring shipper but with very long history of container ship seems to make sense without guessing the appropriate price of FGBIL. Only difference is interest payments vs QDI, which has never been recognized in California.
John, we shared same assessment of these high 6% QDI bank preferreds settle into $26 range. So I tried to chase up to $25.40 right at open and failed. I wanted some cushion in price to flip as I dont need it as a long term income play. Looks like its on to the next battle whatever that is.
Grid,
It is not worthwhile to chase after at this juncture. Now $25.70 with bid same 100 at $25.80. Same pathetic volume of 49,200 shares. I am leaving mine at $25.51. If not filled, I will probably get some of your SESCF, very safe IMHO and decent yield. I have STOPPED buying more SB-C or D. Seems that it is now trading slightly BELOW par. Picked up some of your WCC-A yesterday after selling off all your FPI-B. Thanks for your post at Silicon. I was thinking: why take the risk of getting called or end up with a common paying meager dividend. I sold most of my SITC-A, taking very nice profit. Thanks Tim. Thanks Grid. 11:48 a.m. EDT.
Grid – a hopefully simple question regarding SESCF. If I purchased today at 25.50+ and then participate in the conversion, it seems it is a share to share conversion. That would mean I would get the new shares at 25? I am probably missing something here but appreciate if you could comment. BTW – I have been a long time advocate of Seaspan but currently out of it.
Proto, That is how I interpret it. Remember this started preExD. So you would lose money on conversion. But you get the 2 year protection. And it will trade on bond market.
I always appreciate your insight. I did pickup some SESCF at 25.25 (was hoping for a better entry point but wanted to take a position). Looks like if they were to call now, I would be just about at a break-even point. Question – I can’t seem to find the ex-dividend dates. Most of the sites are no longer carrying that info.
Added a $25 bid on Fidelity but there was no ask. If i can get for par ok but probably not interested much above par. OCCPP is now trading on Fidelity.
Ditto, Libero