Paul, re: FAF, they showed up on a SmartMoney screen 3/19 for smaller, off-the-beaten-path stocks with low PEG and high ROE, and peaked my interest.
I had been looking at competitor FNF, but FAF appears to have a lower beta and better valuation (lower P/B, PEG, and Price/Sales) and dividend yield, albeit both under 2%. FNF has a higher ROE and ROA.
As far as the refi boom being over, I have no way of measuring that, but last night I happen to have dinner with an executive of one of the country's largest lender and he told me the mortgage business is still screaming. (This was before I looked into FAF.)
Snip from Zacks: FAF's fourth-quarter profit rose, helped by demand for real estate-related information in a booming housing market. Net earnings were $82.2 million or $1.01 per share, compared with $52.3 million or 68 cents per share in the same quarter last year. Analysts were expecting 93 cents. Revenues also rose to $1.37 billion from $1.07 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Order counts in their real estate-related businesses remain at elevated levels, which should bode well for the company's results during the first half of 2003. Analysts have raised EPS estimates for 2003 by over +13% over the past month, and recently FAF announced that its board of directors has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of 10 cents per common share. |
