HomeStreet, Inc. (HMST) is a diversified financial services company. The Company is engaged in real estate lending, including mortgage banking activities and retail and business banking operations and serves consumers and businesses in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. It offers deposit and investment products and cash management services and single family loans and commercial loans. HomeStreet’s primary subsidiaries are HomeStreet Bank and HomeStreet Capital Corporation. It operates in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Hawaii. HomeStreet, Inc. is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
HomeStreet was a selection for our Small Cap Stock Newsletter this month and is currently up more than 15% for subscribers. The stock hit a 52-week high yesterday with its close at $22.39/share. In March, the company completed its merger with Simplicity Bank and in April it reported Q1 earnings which were quite impressive– net income of $10.3 million, or $0.59 per diluted share, for the first quarter of 2015, compared to net income of $5.6 million, or $0.38 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2014 and $2.3 million, or $0.15 per share, for the first quarter of 2014.
At that time, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mark K. Mason noted that HomeStreet “made substantial progress toward our goals this quarter. We closed our merger with Simplicity, recognizing a bargain purchase gain and meaningfully reducing the amount of merger-related expenses.”
With the good news, some analysts upgraded the stock and noted that it was well-positioned to profit from current housing market conditions due to its mortgage banking business and ability to benefit from the ongoing wave of re-financing activity. The stock has been moving up ever since. The price increases have also been met with a concurrent wave of increasing earnings estimates (both quarterly and yearly) from analysts as well. So, the stock has been experiencing the best of both worlds and looks more attractive to investors.
ValuEngine continues its STRONG BUY recommendation on HomeStreet, Inc. for 2015-05-18. Based on the information we have gathered and our resulting research, we feel that HomeStreet, Inc. has the probability to OUTPERFORM average market performance for the next year. The company exhibits ATTRACTIVE P/E Ratio and Momentum.
