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All other things being equal, a stock hitting its 52 weeks high is generally a harbinger of good news. The pricing spike generally results from positive developments which may range from better than expected financial results, news about the release of bumper product to potential takeover or merger.
Therefore, as an avid investor, I keep an eye out for stocks touching their 52 weeks high. It helps me to locate potentially bullish stocks. However, there is a major caveat too. I do not advise to follow such burgeoning stocks without performing due diligence. You should make sure that the stock is not the subject matter of Pump and Dump scheme, where the stock price is artificially inflated to let the insiders or promoters make big money. If you decide to follow stocks hitting their 52 weeks high price then you should make sure that there are solid reasons behind such up rise in the price. Following are the major financial stocks hitting the milestone in the current trading session:
West Coast Bancorp (NASDAQ:WCBO): The stock is up on the news of its takeover by Columbia Banking. The transaction is likely to be worth $506 billion. The transaction price will be paid with $264.5 million in cash. The remaining would be payable through 12.8 million shares. The transaction has priced the West Coast Bancorp stock at about $23.10 per share. The stock is currently trading at $22.29, up 10.45 percent from its previous close of $20.18. West Coast Bancorp touched its 52 weeks high price of $22.75 in today’s trading session. Its 52 weeks low price stands at $13.57. The company officials also declared quarterly cash dividend of 5 cents per share. The dividend is payable on October 31, 2012 and the record date has been set at October 10, 2012. West Coast Bancorp currently commands $472.09 million in market capitalization.
Union First Market Bankshares Corporation (NASDAQ:UBSH): The stock is trading at $15.59, up 0.78 percent from its previous close of $15.47. It touched its 52 weeks high price of $15.80. The stock has traded in the tight range of $10.06 and $15.80 in the past 52 weeks. In today’s trading session it has traded in the range of $15.46 and $15.80. This stock is an example of a price rise without any substantial news backing it up. I would carry out more research before opening any position in the stock. However, with Earnings per Share at $1.24 and the Price Earnings ratio at the reasonable level of 12.56, the stock looks fairly healthy. The banking company has market capitalization of $403.81 million. The stock has already traded 29K shares, in comparison to its usual daily volume of 39K shares.
Pulaski Financial Corp. (NASDAQ:PULB): The stock touched its 52 weeks high price of $8.20 in today’s trading session, up 1.86 percent from its previous close of $8.05. Pulaski Financial Corp. announced quarterly cash dividend of 9.5 cents per share, giving this stock a healthy dividend yield of 4.80 percent. The record date for the dividend has been set at October 5, 2012 and the dividend is payable on October 15, 2012. Pulaski Financial Corp. has also seen healthy insider buying interest, which strongly suggests the occurrence of positive news. Stanley Bradshaw, a company director, reported buying 2,310 shares on September 20. It also displays rather conservative Price Earnings ratio of 12.24. The stock looks like an attractive buy candidate. 22 percent of its share capital is owned by institutional investors and the company currently commands the market capitalization of $93.05 million.
NASB Financial Inc. (NASDAQ:NASB): This stock registered its new 52 weeks high of $24.87 in the current trading session. The stock has cooled down a little and is currently trading at $24.02, up 4.75 percent from its previous close. NASB Financial Inc. reported its most recent positive news in August when it reported its quarterly results. It earned 64 cents per share for the quarter, up from 56 cents per share it had earned a year earlier. The stock has consistently been rising since the beginning of this year. Its 52 weeks’ lowest price stands at $9.26. The banking stock has market capitalization of $192.66 million and its stock is trading at the Price Earnings ratio of 11.18.
