For a while there, it was looking like New York Community Bancorp (NYSE:NYCB) was going to be the next regional bank stock to collapse. But it seemed to pull back from the brink and set itself on the right path once more. That didn’t last, however, and now the stock is in decline once more, down nearly 25% in Friday afternoon’s trading.
A string of insider buys brought new hope to the bank’s other investors, but analysts are wondering if those insiders ultimately bought a pig in a poke. For instance, Raymond James’ Steve Moss noted that it had serious concerns about “…NYCB’s interest-only multi-family portfolio, which may require a long workout period unless interest rates decline.” While interest rates are likely to decline at some point, just when that will happen is, as of yet, unclear.
Then the CEO Left
But what really hit hard was the announcement that New York Community Bancorp has a new CEO, Alessandro DiNello. He was previously CEO of Flagstar Bank, which New York Community owns and has owned since 2022. DiNello will have his work cut out for him as previous reports noted that the bank has “…identified material weaknesses in the Company’s internal controls related to internal loan review.” What does that mean? According to the same report, “ineffective oversight.”
Is NYCB Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on NYCB stock based on one Buys, 12 Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 55.08% loss in its share price over the past year, the average NYCB price target of $6.42 per share implies 78.58% upside potential.
