Crescent Financial Bancshares Inc Stock Upgraded (CRFN)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Crescent Financial (Nasdaq:CRFN) has been upgraded by TheStreet Ratings from sell to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance and notable return on equity. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including unimpressive growth in net income, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Compared to its closing price of one year ago, CRFN's share price has jumped by 112.96%, exceeding the performance of the broader market during that same time frame. Regarding the stock's future course, our hold rating indicates that we do not recommend additional investment in this stock despite its gains in the past year.
• CRESCENT FINANCIAL BANCSHRS's earnings per share declined by 50.0% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has not demonstrated a clear trend in earnings over the past two years, making it difficult to accurately predict earnings for the coming year. During the past fiscal year, CRESCENT FINANCIAL BANCSHRS continued to lose money by earning -$1.21 versus -$3.32 in the prior year.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$2.56 million or 293.65% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing to the industry average, the firm's growth rate is much lower.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Commercial Banks industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 59.5% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from -$1.88 million to -$3.01 million.

Crescent Financial Bancshares, Inc. operates as the bank holding company for Crescent State Bank that provides commercial and retail banking services to individuals and small-to-medium sized businesses in North Carolina. Crescent Financial has a market cap of $44.3 million and is part of the financial sector and banking industry. Shares are up 98.2% year to date as of the close of trading on Monday.

You can view the full Crescent Financial Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

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