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Stocks to Watch – LNB Bancorp Inc. (Public, NASDAQ: LNBB)
LNB Bancorp, Inc. offers lending and depository services, investment services and other traditional banking services. It is a diversified banking services company which provides its products and services through its wholly owned subsidiary, The Lorain National Bank (the Bank).
The Company’s main business focuses on the following:
- Providing personal
- Mortgage and commercial banking products
- Investment management
- Trust services
The Bank operated through 20 retail-banking locations and 30 automated teller machines (ATM’s) in Lorain, Erie, Cuyahoga and Summit counties in the Ohio communities of Lorain, Elyria, Amherst, Avon, Avon Lake, LaGrange, North Ridgeville, Oberlin, Olmsted Township, Vermilion, Westlake and Hudson, as well as a business development office in Cuyahoga County.
On the other hand, its deposit services include traditional transaction and time deposit accounts, as well as cash management services for corporate and municipal customers. It may supplement local deposit generation with time deposits generated through a broker relationship.
Other bank services provided are safe deposit boxes, night depository, the United States savings bonds, travelers’ checks, money orders, cashiers checks, ATM’s, debit cards, wire transfer, electronic funds transfers, foreign drafts, foreign currency, electronic banking by phone or through the Internet, lockbox and other services tailored for both individuals and businesses.
Lending Activities
Its commercial lending activities consist of commercial and industrial loans, commercial real estate loans, construction and equipment loans, letters of credit, revolving lines of credit, small business administration loans and government guaranteed loans.
The Company’s commercial loans are mainly made to local businesses in the form of lines-of-credit, equipment or plant facilities while consumer loans are made to borrowers mainly on secured terms. Real estate mortgages are primarily adjustable rate one- to four-family mortgage loans and construction loans made to individuals.
Investment Activities
By 2010, the Company’s investment portfolio consisted of available for sale securities which consisted of 25.28% the United States Government agencies, 43.27% the United States agency mortgage backed securities, 20.52% the United States collateralized mortgage obligations and 10.93% municipal securities.
Sources of Funds
The Bank mainly gets its funds from deposits. It offers retail and business customers several deposit products, which includes checking accounts, interest checking, savings accounts and time deposits. By 2010, the Bank had no brokered time deposit balances.
LNB Bancorp, Inc. (Public, NASDAQ: LNBB) 52 week: 3.56 – 6.02 Mkt cap: 41.85M Shares: 7.88M
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Stocks to Watch – Independence Holding Company (Public, NYSE: IHC)
Independence Holding Company (IHC) serves as a holding company that provides life and health insurance business. It offers specialized life and health coverage and related services to commercial customers and individuals. The Company has two fully owned subsidiaries: Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York (Standard Security Life) and Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. (Madison National Life) which market their products through independent and affiliated brokers, producers and agents.
Medical Stop-Loss
The Company serves as writer nationally of excess or stop-loss insurance for self-insured employer groups that desire to manage the risk of large medical claims (Employer Medical Stop-Loss). This provides coverage to public and private entities that elect to self-insure their employees’ medical coverage for losses within specified ranges.
This coverage is accessible on either a specific or a specific and aggregate basis, even though the majority of the Company’s policies cover both specific and aggregate claims. Plans are designed to fit the identified needs of the self-insured employer by offering a variety of:
Fully Insured Health Products
IHC also sells group major medical insurance which includes consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) primarily to small employers. These products are marketed in the majority of states. It also provides a group medical plan to employers who are contractors working on government-funded projects under the Davis-Bacon and Service Contract Acts. The Company also sells group and individual dental products in the majority of states.
Group Disability; Life, Annuities and DBL
IHC also markets group long-term disability (LTD) products to employers that wish to provide this benefit to their employees. Consequently, benefit payments are reduced by the following:
- Social security
- Workers compensation
- Pension benefits
- Other income replacement payment
Individual Life, Annuities and Other
This category includes insurance products that are in runoff as a result of the Company’s decision to discontinue writing such products as:
- Blocks of business that were acquired from other insurance companies
- Individual life and annuities written through Madison National Life’s military and civilian government employee division
- Blanket accident insurance sold through a specialized general agent, and certain miscellaneous insurance products
This also includes individual accident and health, individual life, single premium immediate annuities, disability income, accidental medical, accidental death, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance for athletes, executives and entertainers, and miscellaneous insurance business.
Independence Holding Company (Public, NYSE: IHC) 52 week: 6.81 – 11.10 Mkt cap: 170.72M Shares: 16.42M
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Stocks to Watch – Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (Public, NASDAQ: GLDD)
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (Great Lakes) offers dredging services in the United States. It is engaged in the business of marine construction, primarily dredging, and commercial and industrial demolition. The Company provides services and operates in two segments:
It provides dredging services in the East, West, and Gulf Coasts of the United States and worldwide. It owns a majority interest in NASDI which is a demolition services provider located in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Moreover, it has a 50% interest in Amboy Aggregates, a sand mining operation in New Jersey.
The Company’s main dredging customers are domestic and foreign government agencies, as well as private entities, and its primary demolition customers are general contractors, corporations that commission projects, non-profit institutions, such as universities and hospitals, and local government and municipal agencies.
Dredging
By 2010, the Company’s dredging operations accounted for approximately 89% of the Company’s total revenues. Capital dredging service consists mainly of port expansion projects, which involve the deepening of channels to allow access by draft ships and the provision of land fill used to expand port facilities. It also includes land reclamations, trench digging for pipelines, tunnels and cables, and other dredging related to the construction of breakwaters, jetties, canals and other marine structures.
On the other hand, maintenance dredging consists of the re-dredging of previously deepened waterways and harbors to remove silt, sand and other accumulated sediments.
Lastly, foreign capital projects classically include land reclamations, channel deepening and port infrastructure development. By 2010, it generated more or less 14% of dredging revenues. In 2010, about 54% of the Company’s dredging revenues were from approximately 47 different contracts with federal agencies or third parties operating under contracts with federal agencies.
Demolition
This segment owns and operates specialized demolition equipment which includes a fleet of excavators equipped with shears, pulverizers, processors, grapples, and hydraulic hammers that provide high-capacity processing of construction and demolition debris for recycling, reclamation and disposal.
It receives revenues from change orders on existing contracts. NASDI established a network of local contacts with developers and prime contractors that act as referral sources and enable NASDI to procure demolition jobs on a sole-source basis. Its central business is exterior and interior demolition.
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation (Public, NASDAQ: GLDD) 52 week: 3.97 – 8.93 Mkt cap: 370.86M Shares: 5
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Stocks to Watch – Full Circle Capital Corp. (Public, NASDAQ: FULL)
Full Circle Capital Corporation (Full Circle Capital) generates both current income and capital appreciation through debt and equity investments. It is primarily a non-diversified closed-end management investment company. The Company mainly invests in asset-based senior secured loans, mezzanine loans and equity securities issued by smaller and lower middle-market companies that operate in a diverse range of industries, with a focus on the media, communications and business services industries.
Moreover, the Company’s investments would range in size from $3 million to $10 million. It focuses primarily on senior secured loans and stretch senior secured loans. Its investments also include mezzanine, subordinated or unsecured loans. The Company’s investment adviser is Full Circle Advisors, LLC and its administrator is Full Circle Service Company.
The Company’s lending activities are focused on portfolio companies with both tangible and intangible assets available as collateral and security against its loan, and cash flow to cover debt service. It seeks to invest in smaller and lower middle-market companies.
The Company is known as an externally managed investment company which was elected to be treated as a business development company under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Full Circle invests primarily in smaller and lower middle-market companies that operate in a diverse range of industries, with a specific focus on the media, communications and business services industries where we believe we have particular expertise.
The Company’s portfolio focuses on the following:
- Tangible and intangible assets available as collateral and security against our loan to help mitigate our risk of loss
- Cash flow to cover debt service.
Full Circle is mandated to provide borrowers with flexible financing solutions designed to best fit with each borrower’s growth and value creation objectives. The Company offers financing supported by accounts receivable and inventory. Moreover, it provides a range of financing solutions for asset purchases in existing market as well as expansion to new markets. The lending activities cover areas in North America.
Full Circle provides funds for those who are developing new assets. It can structure funding to match the client’s capital needs. The Company’s multi draw term loan and revolving credit facilities allow you to efficiently meet both short-term and long-term capital requirements.
Full Circle Capital Corp. (Public, NASDAQ: FULL) 52 week: 6.09 – 8.85 Mkt cap: 50.44M Shares: 6.22M
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Stocks to Watch – First Community Corporation (Public, NASDAQ: FCCO)
First Community Corporation is the bank holding company for First Community Bank, N.A (the Bank). The Company is involved in a commercial banking business from its main office in Lexington, Forest Acres, Irmo, Cayce-West Columbia, Gilbert, Chapin, Northeast Columbia, Prosperity, Newberry and Camden.
The Company offers several banking products and services directed for the following clients:
- Professionals
- Small-to medium-sized businesses
- Consumer and commercial
- Mortgage, brokerage and investment
- Insurance services
The Bank also offers online banking to its customers. It is involved in a general commercial and retail banking business which include Internet banking, cash management services, safe deposit boxes, travelers checks, direct deposit of payroll and social security checks, and automatic drafts for various accounts. It provides non-deposit investment products and other investment brokerage services through a registered representative with an affiliation through LPL Financial.
Lending Activities
The Bank provides several commercial and personal loans. Commercial loans can either be secured and unsecured loans for working capital (including inventory and receivables), business expansion (including acquisition of real estate and improvements), and purchase of equipment and machinery.
Consumer loans on the other hand, include secured and unsecured loans for financing automobiles, home improvements, education and personal investments. The Company makes real estate construction and acquisition loans. It originates fixed and variable rate mortgage loans substantially all of which are closed in the name of a third party, which are sold into the secondary market.
Investment Activities
Its total securities amounted to an average of $194.4 million in 2010. On the same year, its investment securities portfolio amounted to $196.2 million. During 2010, total securities averaged $194.4.9 million. The Bank had mortgage-backed securities (MBSs), including collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) with a fair value of $121.3 million.
Sources of Funds
The primary source of fund is from deposit services, including checking accounts, negotiable order of withdrawal (NOW) accounts, savings accounts and other time deposits of various types, ranging from daily money market accounts to longer-term certificates of deposit. It also has borrowed funds consist of securities sold under agreements to repurchase, Federal Home Loan Bank advances and long-term debt. As a member of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, the Bank has access to advances from the FHLB Atlanta for various terms and amounts.
First Community Corporation (Public, NASDAQ: FCCO) 52 week: 4.69 – 8.50 Mkt cap: 23.62M Shares: 3.30M
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