New York Community Bancorp Inc. “is on its to own” to figure out its accounting and other issues as it gears up to update its financials in the coming weeks.
That’s according to Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz, after the regional bank disclosed “material weaknesses” in its accounting and other financial-reporting issues, news that sent its stock down 25% early Friday.
“We expect more questions on whether NYCB will sell, but we do not see a lot of potential buyers here even at this price due to the uncertainty,” Horowitz wrote in a note to clients.
While the material weakness “adds more fuel” to the fire around New York Community Bancorp, no additional financial impact is expected beyond the $2.4 goodwill impairment charge that it took for its fourth quarter, Horowitz said.
New York Community Bancorp’s stock fell to $3.46 a share in premarket trading, after the bank said late Thursday it found material weakness related to its loan review in an evaluation of its internal financial controls.
The deficiencies were the result of “ineffective oversight, risk-assessment and monitoring activities,” the bank said.
A spokesperson for the Federal Deposit Loan Corp. declined to comment.
Citigroup analyst Horowitz said “significant changes” will be needed for the bank’s credit risk monitoring, “which we expect may lead to them being more proactive on recognizing issues going forward.”
The bank’s disclosure that it does not anticipate a materially different operations disclosure is important, Horowitz said.
“A material weakness does not necessarily always equate to an impact on financials,” Horowitz said. “In our view, the delay in the 10-K is likely meant to give auditors sufficient time to ensure that there was no financial impact from the material weakness in the control environment, which means a lot of time for individual loan testing.”
Wedbush analyst David Chiaverini reiterated an underperform rating — the equivalent of sell — on New York Community Bancorp and cut his price target for the stock to $3.50 from $5.00.
“Our underperform rating is based on NYCB’s high exposure to NYC rent-regulated multifamily loans, which we believe are under stress, and represent 25% of NYCB’s total loans, which is the highest in our
coverage,” Chiaverini said.
New York Community Bancorp said it had appointed Alessandro DiNello as its new president and chief executive effective immediately, after Thomas Cangemi resigned from the roles after 27 years at the company. Former Flagstar CEO DiNello was appointed as NYCB’s executive chair earlier this month, having previously served as nonexecutive chair of its board. Cangemi will remain on the board.
Also read: New York Community Bancorp’s stock crushed on surprise loss, dividend cut and cost of two loans
Philip Van Doorn and Bill Peters contributed to this report
