Bank of Hawaii Hits 52-Week High - Analyst Blog

Shares of Bank of Hawaii Corporation BOH crafted a new 52-week high, touching $61.36 on Mar 24. However, the stock closed the session at $60.49, reflecting a solid return of 24.4% in a one-year period. The trading volume for the session was 214,075 shares.

Despite the strong price appreciation, this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock has plenty of upside left, given the strong estimate revisions it witnessed over the past 60 days. Further, the long-term expected earnings per share growth rate for this regional bank now stands at 7.33%.

Growth Drivers

Impressive fourth-quarter 2013 results, including continuously improving commercial segment, higher net interest income and prudent expense management, and efficient capital deployment strategies primarily drove the stock price.

On Jan 27, Bank of Hawaii reported fourth-quarter 2013 earnings of 88 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 2.3%. This was, however, below the prior-year quarter figure of 90 cents.
 
For full-year 2013, Bank of Hawaii's net interest income was recorded at $92.1 million, up 2.0% year over year. As on Dec 31, 2013, total deposits increased to $11.91 billion, up from $11.61 billion as of Sep 30, 2013, and $11.53 billion as of Dec 31, 2012.

Driven by strong deposit growth, the fourth-quarter investment portfolio increased to $6.99 billion from $6.91 billion as of Sep 30, 2013 and $6.96 billion as of Dec 31, 2012.

On the downside, decline in non-interest income led to a fall in revenues. The decline was due to lower mortgage banking revenues, which totaled $2.8 million in the fourth quarter, down from $11.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

Estimate Revisions Show Potency

Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2014 advanced 2.5% to $3.66 per share. For 2015, the Estimate moved up around 3.4% to $3.95 per share.

Some better-ranked stocks in this space include Central Valley Community Bancorp CVCY, Preferred Bank PFBC and Summit State Bank SSBI. All of these carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).