The following are today's upgrades for Validea's Low PE Investor model based on the published strategy of John Neff. This strategy looks for firms with persistent earnings growth that trade at a discount relative to their earnings growth and dividend yield.
STELLAR BANCORP INC (STEL) is a small-cap value stock in the Money Center Banks industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 60% to 79% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
Company Description: Stellar Bancorp, Inc. is a bank holding company. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, Stellar Bank (the Bank), the Company provides a diversified range of commercial banking services primarily to small-to-medium-sized businesses, professionals and individual customers within its markets. The Company offers a range of commercial and retail lending services, including commercial loans, loans to small businesses guaranteed by the small business administration (the SBA), mortgage loans, home equity loans, personal loans and automobile loans, among others. The types of deposit accounts that the Company offers are typical of most commercial banks and consist of checking accounts, commercial accounts, money market accounts, savings accounts and other time deposits of various types and terms. The Company operates over 54 full-service banking centers, with 37 banking centers in the Houston region, 16 banking centers in the Beaumont region and one banking center in Dallas, Texas.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
| P/E RATIO: | PASS |
| EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | FAIL |
| SALES GROWTH: | PASS |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | FAIL |
Detailed Analysis of STELLAR BANCORP INC
LEAR CORP (LEA) is a mid-cap value stock in the Auto & Truck Parts industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 62% to 81% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
Company Description: Lear Corporation is a global automotive technology company. The Company supplies complete seat systems, key seat components, complete electrical distribution and connection systems, high-voltage power distribution products, including battery disconnect units (BDUs), low-voltage power distribution products, electronic controllers and other electronic products to automotive manufacturers. Its segments include Seating and E-Systems. The Seating segment consists of the design, development, engineering and manufacture of complete seat systems and key seat components. The E-Systems segment consists of the design, development, engineering and manufacture of complete electrical distribution and connection systems, high-voltage power distribution products and other electronic products. Its software offerings include embedded control, cybersecurity software and software to control hardware devices. It also provides automated solutions and AI-based technologies for complex industrial challenges.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
| P/E RATIO: | PASS |
| EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| SALES GROWTH: | FAIL |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | PASS |
Detailed Analysis of LEAR CORP
BANCFIRST CORP (BANF) is a mid-cap growth stock in the Money Center Banks industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 60% to 79% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
Company Description: BancFirst Corporation is a financial holding company, which operates through its subsidiaries, BancFirst and Pegasus Bank, which are a state-chartered banks. The Company has six business units: metropolitan banks, community banks, Pegasus, Worthington, other financial services and executive, operations, and support. Metropolitan banks, community banks, Pegasus and Worthington offers commercial and retail lending, a full line of deposit accounts and other. Metropolitan banks consist of banking locations in the metropolitan Oklahoma City and Tulsa areas. Community banks consist of banking locations in communities throughout Oklahoma. Pegasus consists of banking locations in the Dallas metropolitan area. Worthington consists of banking locations in the Fort Worth metropolitan area. Other financial services are specialty product business units, including guaranteed small business lending, residential mortgage lending, trust services, securities brokerage, electronic banking and insurance.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
| P/E RATIO: | PASS |
| EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | FAIL |
| SALES GROWTH: | PASS |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | FAIL |
Detailed Analysis of BANCFIRST CORP
About John Neff: While known as the manager with whom many top managers entrusted their own money, Neff was far from the smooth-talking, high-profile Wall Streeter you might expect. He was mild-mannered and low-key, and the same might be said of the Windsor Fund that he managed for more than three decades. In fact, Neff himself described the fund as "relatively prosaic, dull, [and] conservative." There was nothing dull about his results, however. From 1964 to 1995, Neff guided Windsor to a 13.7 percent average annual return, easily outpacing the S&P 500's 10.6 percent return during that time. That 3.1 percentage point difference is huge over time -- a $10,000 investment in Windsor (with dividends reinvested) at the start of Neff's tenure would have ended up as more than $564,000 by the time he retired, more than twice what the same investment in the S&P would have yielded (about $233,000). Considering the length of his tenure, that track record may be the best ever for a manager of such a large fund.
About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
