Anthracite Capital is Re-Inflating

Instead of talking about finance institutions that are being diluted like Citigroup (C Quote) and financial institutions that are so hot they're already above their November lows like Wells Fargo (WFC Quote) and Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), I'm going to introduce you to a better place where it's bottoms up from here.

After getting the wind knocked out of it, Anthracite Capital (AHR Quote) shows signs of life. Granted that the price may have exploded higher from $0.74 by the time you see this article, but let's use that price as a baseline. What do we know about Anthracite at $0.74?

1. Anthracite is trading at a P/E of 0.487 if you knock out the fourth-quarter earnings nightmare and look back one year from the third quarter. The reason I took out the fourth quarter is because the loss claimed appears to be a one-time huge write off, followed by positive earnings the next quarter.

2. Anthracite Capital is trading at a book value of 0.1.

3. Anthracite Capital is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Let me repeat. This is a company cheaper than the listing requirements on the New York Stock Exchange. It either increases in price or eventually gets delisted.

All of these figures indicate that Anthracite is priced for bankruptcy. Where's the good news?

1. They have pushed back the disaster twice already and have been in talks to resolve the issue. If I know anything about creditors, the last thing they want to do is run their debtors into the ground.