fisher capital management research: Provident Financial Services Inc. Reports Operating Results (10-K)

Provident Financial Services Inc. (PFS) filed Annual Report for the period ended 2010-12-31.

Provident Financial Services Inc. has a market cap of $893.8 million; its shares were traded at around $14.81 with a P/E ratio of 16.5 and P/S ratio of 2.8. The dividend yield of Provident Financial Services Inc. stocks is 3%.
Mutual Fund and Other Gurus that owns PFS: John Keeley of Keeley Fund Management, Kenneth Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, LLC.

Highlight of Business Operations:

The Company is a Delaware corporation which became the holding company for The Provident Bank (the “Bank”) on January 15, 2003, following the completion of the conversion of the Bank to a stock chartered savings bank. On January 15, 2003, the Company issued an aggregate of 59,618,300 shares of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share in a subscription offering and contributed $4.8 million in cash and 1,920,000 shares of its common stock to The Provident Bank Foundation, a charitable foundation established by the Bank. As a result of the conversion and related stock offering, the Company raised $567.2 million in net proceeds, of which $293.2 million was utilized to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of the Bank. The Company owns all of the outstanding common stock of the Bank, and as such, is a bank holding company subject to regulation by the Federal Reserve Board.

At December 31, 2010, the Company had total assets of $6.82 billion, net loans of $4.34 billion, total deposits of $4.88 billion, and total stockholders’ equity of $921.7 million. The Company’s mailing address is 239 Washington Street, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302, and the Company’s telephone number is (732) 590-9200.

Capital Management. The Company paid cash dividends totaling $25.0 million and repurchased 17,700 shares of its common stock at a cost of $193,000 in 2010. The Company has curtailed common stock repurchase activity since 2009 to preserve capital in response to the difficult economic environment. The Company and the Bank were “well capitalized” at December 31, 2010 under current regulatory standards.

Asset Quality. As of December 31, 2010, non-performing assets were $100.1 million or 1.47% of total assets, compared to $90.9 million or 1.33% of total assets at December 31, 2009. While the Bank’s non-performing asset levels have been adversely impacted by the troubled residential real estate market and the challenging economic environment, the Bank continues to focus on conservative underwriting criteria and on aggressive collection efforts.

Emphasis on Relationship Banking and Core Deposits. The Bank emphasizes the acquisition and retention of core deposit accounts, such as checking and savings accounts, and expanding customer relationships. Core deposit accounts totaled $3.60 billion at December 31, 2010, representing 73.8% of total deposits, compared with $3.39 billion, or 69.2% of total deposits at December 31, 2009. The Bank also focuses on increasing the number of households and businesses served and the number of bank products per customer.

Non-Interest Income. The Bank’s focus on transaction accounts and expanded products and services has enabled the Bank to generate non-interest income. Fees derived from core deposit accounts are a primary source of non-interest income. The Bank also offers investment products and wealth and asset management services to generate non-interest income. Total non-interest income was $31.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, compared with $31.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2009, and fee income was $23.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2010, compared with $24.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2009.