Given that you clicked on this article, it seems safe to assume you either own shares of KeyCorp (KEY -0.66%) or are considering buying them 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 KeyCorp before deciding whether to buy, sell, or hold its stock.
But before getting to that, a brief introduction is in order. Tracing its roots back more than 160 years, KeyCorp today is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, it operates more than 1,083 full service branches across 14 states. As of the end of 2012, it had $89 billion of assets on its balance sheet, ranking it in size between Alabama's Regions Financial at $121 billion in assets and M&T Bank at $83 billion.
As you can see in the table above, from a shareholder's perspective, KeyCorp exhibits a handful of positive characteristics. Its nonperforming loans ratio is currently much better than the industry average, coming in at 1.3% versus 1.84%, respectively. In addition, it generates roughly half of its revenue from noninterest-based sources such as account fees and mortgage banking income; this helps to stymie the impact on its bottom line in periods of low interest rates. And finally, its return on equity is 30 basis points higher than the average.
On the other hand, KeyCorp's figures also point to a number of opportunities. In the first case, its net interest margin is almost 50 basis points lower than its typical competitor. In the second case, its efficiency ratio is higher -- meaning it costs KeyCorp more to generate each dollar of revenue than it should. And last but not least, it distributes only 22% of its earnings via dividends, leaving much to be desired. It's likely for these reasons KeyCorp's shares trade for a relative discount at 1.05 times tangible book value.
