Value Plays Among the Thrift Stocks

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- An annual ranking of thrift holding companies features a number of thinly-traded names, but digging a bit further into the data reveals plenty of respectable value plays.

Malaga Financial (MLGF) of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., came in as the top performer in SNL Financial's yearly evaluation, which uses weighted scores derived from the metrics in the chart below to compare the largest 100 publicly traded thrifts. SNL defines a thrift as a holding company whose main subsidiary is either a savings bank or savings and loan association, and inclusion on the list is based on total assets for the year ended March 31.

SNL Financial's Top 10 Thrift Holding Companies

TheStreet has recently covered several names among SNL's Top 10 thrift holding companies, including New York Community Bancorp (NYB) as one of the Five Best Bank Stocks Since The Flash Crash and in the Best In Class series. New York Community is emerging from the credit crisis as a strong regional player, and even with shares up 14% through Monday's closing price of $16.08, the stock's dividend yield was 6.22%.

Also in the Top 10 is Hudson City Bancorp(HCBK), another of the better bank performers since the flash crash. Based on Monday's close at $13.24, the stock was down 1% year-to-date, but the dividend yield was 4.53% and the shares seem ridiculously under-valued at 1.2 times tangible book value.

Dime Community Bancshares (DCM) was featured in TheStreet's Six Bank Stocks with Solid Dividends. The shares returned 8% year-to-date through Monday's close at $12.41, and the dividend yield was 4.51%.

Ten Most Actively-Traded Thrift Holding Companies Among Largest 100

Since a number of the most actively traded thrifts listed in the table above have been covered in other recent stories on TheStreet, including BankAtlantic(BBX) and People's United Financial(PBCT), we've decided to focus on five of the more actively-traded thrift names outside the top ten volume leaders on SNL's list and found one outstanding bargain and a couple of value plays.