Jim Lebenthal buys $NYCB as it reveals plans of reverse stock split

Jim Lebenthal – the chief equity strategist of Cerity Partners just invested in New York Community Bancorp Inc (NYSE: NYCB). Shares of the regional lender are up 5.0% at writing.

NYCB stock is trading below tangible book value

Lebenthal agrees that $NYCB is a “higher risk” trade considering the embattled bank has “some uninsured deposits”.

But he decided to get involved anyways because it has “liquidity on hand that’s about 160% of those uninsured deposits”.

Lebenthal decided to buy NYCB stock today also because it’s currently trading at about “55% of tangible book value”.

On CNBC’s “Halftime Report”, he acknowledged the ongoing weakness in commercial real estate but remained confident that “it’s not all going to go down”. Shares of New York Community Bancorp are currently down nearly 65% versus the start of 2024.

Lebenthal is bullish on new NYCB directors

Jim Lebenthal sees potential for upside in $NYCB particularly because Steven Mnuchin – former Treasury Secretary of the United States is now on board of the financial services company as Invezz reported here.

Steven Mnuchin is no dummy. Let me leave it there. He just put a billion dollars with a consortium of investors into [NYCB].

He’s convinced that the U.S. government wants the New York Community Bancorp to survive.  

Also on Tuesday, the New York listed firm announced plans of proposing a one-for-three reverse stock split to its shareholders. Wall Street currently has a consensus “hold” rating on NYCB shares that now pay a dividend of just one cent (read more).