Work with me: Private Investment Coaching
Using My Bank Screener
Last week’s post showcased my custom bank screener. This week I put it to use.
Here’s my search criteria:
Return on assets > 1.20%
Nonperforming loans < 1%
Net charge-offs (NCO) < 0.25%
Tangible equity/assets > 8%
Efficiency ratio < 65%
I took the resulting list of 440 banks and had Claude add price/tangible book (the screener can pick that up) and rank them based on P/TBV, 3-Yr ROE, and current return on tangible equity.
I then calculated a going-in return based on the current P/TBV and 3-Yr ROE. Here’s the top 10:
As you can see, these are thinly traded tiny banks, which means we’re probably in good hunting grounds. Two I’ve covered before: Crazy Woman Creek and Citizens Bancorp of Virginia.
Other than those two, here’s a first-pass screen of these names (i.e., you may know more than I do; please let me know if you have insights!).
Bank of Utica (BKUT | New York)
This looks like a very unusual bank. It’s effectively an investment portfolio with a bank charter. Two-thirds of its assets are in its HTM portfolio, with another ~13% in equities. Just 10% of assets are in loans. And it has a grand total of one branch.
It appears that the spikes in ROA are due to the mark-to-market changes in the securities portfolio.
Digging into the securities portfolio, I’m even more curious. There’s nearly $900mm of foreign debt.
The relatively tiny loan book looks decent:
Caveat Emptor: I checked with a friend who knows BKUT. His advice: Stay away.
OptimumBank Holdings (OPHC | Florida)
Edit: My original market cap was wrong; corrected, P/TBV is 1.64x. I left it in as it seems to be a fairly well-run bank, just not as cheap as at first glance.
Optimum was a de novo in 2000 (when does it stop being de novo?) with 4 branches and a concentration in CRE (74% of loans).
As the first chart illustrates, the bank spent 15 years at around $200mm in assets, then grew rapidly to $1.4 billion at the end of 2025. Doing a little more digging, it seems the bank raised capital multiple times between 2021 and 2025, a total of $58.8 million between common and preferred.
The bank has a niche in skilled nursing facilities, which are common in Florida. The bank’s two largest shareholders are directors who own SNFs, so there’s some expertise there.
Great American Bancorp (GTPS | Illinois)
Great American is a 2-branch bank founded in 1908. It pairs a residential lending operation (68% of loans) with an insurance agency that boosts ROA.
The spikes in NCO look worrisome until you realize the chart is scaled to 70bps max.
Note: These charts are for First Federal Savings Bank of Champaign-Urbana, its bank sub.
NorthEast Community Bancorp (NECB | New York)
It trades at book value but has over 70% of loans in construction. Further, it’s 90% loaned up.
Looking deeper, NECB has its construction portfolio in 247 projects, primarily in residential construction (condo / townhome developments) north of NYC.
Golden State Bancorp (GSBX | California)
Here’s another de novo-ish bank founded in 2003. It has just $1 billion in assets across three branches, a $92mm market cap, and trades at 1.02x book.
The question I have is: will history repeat itself? It appears most of the board and management are new after the bank recapitalized in 2014-15, so the longer-term track record isn’t as deep of a black mark.
The Chairman and CEO owns 12% of the bank, and insiders in total own 32%; additionally, another 9% or so is owned by a fund run by a director.
Crazy Woman Creek Bancorp (CRZY | Wyoming)
I covered this bank in February. It traded at 0.85x BV then and now trades at book.
This one proves that a relatively tiny bank can earn decent returns on assets. The only downside is it’s pretty opaque in terms of disclosure. I like it enough to keep it on my watchlist.
MBT Bancshares (MBKL | Louisiana)
This $650mm asset bank trades at 0.84x book. It has 8 branches around Metairie, LA. About half the loan book is in CRE and another third in residential.
Note: At this point, I realized my screener annualized NCO data. So that 0.46% for MBT turned into 0.29%. I used the opportunity to revise the tool to use TTM figures.
Citizens Bancorp of Virginia (CZBT | Virginia)
Here’s another one I covered in February. It’s since re-rated from 0.95x to 1.10x BV.
Given that track record of improving ROA, I think it probably deserves >1x BV. It appears to have a nice low-cost base of deposits, although noninterest-bearing deposits are only 23%.
Security Bancorp (SCYT | Tennessee)
This $385mm asset bank has 3 offices in rural TN. It looks to be a slow grower and I like the steadily growing ROA. NCO in the early/mid-2010s were modest, and it appears to have had the same CEO since 2007.
Pioneer Bankcorp (PBKC | Florida)
This 100-year-old bank has $800mm in assets across 7 branches and trades at 1.19x BV. It’s a bit pricier than the others but appears deserving of a higher valuation with ROA currently at 1.5% and climbing.
The stain on PBKC is the large losses in the GFC tied to Florida real estate. From 2009-11 the bank charged off 7.5% of the loan book. It looks like the holding company shareholders put in $5.5mm of fresh capital, and the bank suspended its dividend for 4 years.
More thoughts? Let me know in a private message or leave a comment.
Stay Rational!
Adam
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