Banking is a business where the Goliaths don't always have commanding advantages over the Davids. When it comes to commercial lending, in particular, smaller banks can often do well by hiring productive loan officers unhappy working for less entrepreneurial banks and leveraging them with high-touch service models.
OceanFirst (OCFC) has had some solid successes using that approach to grow loans in the NYC and Philly metro areas, and is now targeting Baltimore, Boston, and Washington, D.C., while also continuing to be an acquisitive bank - its latest acquisition building the company's presence in Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
In the three years since my last article on OceanFirst, the bank has not performed particularly well, underperforming smaller regional banks by around 30% or so. In addition to taking a hit from the pandemic, OceanFirst has suffered from a sentiment shift against acquisitive banks. With a credible plan to drive above-average growth, though, these shares may be worth another look now.
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OceanFirst Looking To Disrupt Large, New Loan Markets And Generate Significant Operating Leverage
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