Each night I post ‘headlines’ and within those headline are quite a few for earnings of various company’s with preferred stock and/or baby bonds outstanding. Usually I take the opportunity to skim over some of the reports–in particular if I have exposure to their securities.
Insurance company WR Berkley (WRB) reported earnings on Monday evening and to say this company is well managed would be one hell of an understatement. Just blow out earnings quarter after quarter. They have numerous baby bonds outstanding of which I own the 5.70% subordinated notes (WRB-E) held in my sock drawer.
Both Texas Capital Bancshares and Triumph Financial, both Texas banks, reported earnings recently and they came in very soft. On the other hand Bank OZK (OZK) reported record earnings and announced a $200 million stock buyback. Many other community and regional banks have reported or will be in the next week or two–I am watching so I can decide if I want to have more involvement with some preferred shares. We own nothing relative to these these 3 issues.
I see that both the S&P500 and NASDAQ are off in the 1% area this morning. Earnings are rolling in and shares of companies like Tesla are off sharply on misses on revenues and/or earnings. The tech stocks have some pretty lofty expectations built into the share prices–any miss and the stock is taken to the wood shed. No real surprise, but it is likely it will be looked at as ‘buying opportunities’ by folks – the dry powder has to flow somewhere and we know there are trillions of dollars available.
The 10 year treasury is trading around 4.23% – it has been kind of flattish on the week as we haven’t had much economic news and folks are awaiting GDP tomorrow and PCE inflation numbers on Friday. The end of the week should be ‘fun’.
Tim
I’m new to this but noted that wkb-e and the other wkb issues are neither qed or cummulative, could you share why this does not seem to dim your enthusiasm for the issues. I’m sure you have your reasons but would benefit from your inputs tia sc
Bloomberg reports that the $3.4 billion real estate investment trust BXMT (REIT) cut its dividend to 47 cents from 62 cents. BXMT has been distributing the 62-cent dividend to shareholders since late 2015.
Tailwalk, according to FAST graphs and Yahoo estimates for YR2024 BXMT will have to cut again. Estimates are 1.60 and 1.85
Tailwalk:
Muddy Waters (Carson Block) was very public about his short position on BXMT issued back in December 2023. Was adamant that a dividend cut was coming for BXMT in 2024.
These short sellers aren’t always right, but I usually find it informational to read their research, as they almost always do extensive deep-dives. Carson put out a 51-page research report on BXMT last December for anyone to read.
BANC-F (current yield ~8%) is one of my larger positions so I watch it closely.
Their earnings were… not fantastic, but okay. They’re muddling through and still digesting PacWest.
What’s kind of interesting is that listening to their conference call they all but tell you “we are sandbagging earnings for the rest of the year” so long as they get at least one Fed rate cut.
Tim, I am no expert at reading the reports but I looked at ONB and TRIN and from what I could tell both reported good news.