Given that you clicked on this article, it seems safe to assume you either own stock in Cullen/Frost Bankers (CFR 2.09%) or are considering buying shares in the near future. If so, then you've come to the right place. The table below reveals the nine most critical numbers that investors need to know about Cullen/Frost stock before deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold it.
But before getting to that, a brief introduction is in order. Founded in 1868, Cullen/Frost provides banking, investment, and insurance services to businesses and individuals in multiple cities throughout Texas. With $23 billion in assets on its balance sheet, it's one of the nation's largest lenders, ranking between Wisconsin's Associated Banc-Corp and Northern California's SVB Financial (the holding company for Silicon Valley Bank).
As you can see in the table above, from a shareholder's perspective, Cullen/Frost outperforms the industry in a multitude of metrics. First and foremost, its nonperforming loans ratio is roughly half the average of the 100-plus banks I examined for the current article series. This demonstrates a prudent approach to credit-risk management. It's been able to accomplish this, moreover, without giving up too much on the net interest margin side -- as interest rate spreads and credit risk are, almost by definition, correlated.
Beyond this, Cullen/Frost generates a respectively one-third of its income from fee-revenue -- this helps to serve as a hedge against extended periods of low interest rates. And it pays out roughly half of its net income in dividends -- rewarding shareholders for their investment while simultaneously tempering acquisitive inclinations on the part of management.
With this in mind, it should be no surprise that the biggest downside to purchasing Cullen/Frost shares concerns valuation. Trading at more than 2 times tangible book value for the reasons just discussed, they are far from cheap.
