Recovery is an uncertainty for battered local bank stocks - South Florida Business Journal:

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In a March 20 researchb note, analyst Michael Rose said national bank stockse might havereached bottom. Many bank stocks are alreadu well above their annuallow points, and he citecd the “tremendous” government intervention and financial aid as a major factoer in assuring investors. “We still believe the banks can lead us out of this bear market well before we entef therecovery phase, and well before nonperforming assets and net charge-offsd peak,” Rose wrote in his report. this optimism was tempered when it cameto Florida’s largesty bank.
Raymond James rated Coral Gables-based BKUNA) “underperform,” and predicted it would continue losing moneythroughout 2009. BankUnited has warned that financial regulators might seize the bank ifit can’yt raise money to meet its capital requirements. South Florida’s second-largest publicly traded bank, Fort Lauderdale-based (NYSE: BBX), was downgradef to “underperform” by analysg Paul J. Miller at on Feb. 11. The investmen t bank predictedthat BankAtlantic’s losses in 2009 woulrd nearly equal its losses in 2008. Millerr noted that BankAtlantic has only turnecd a profit in one of the pastnine quarters.
“BankAtlanti tries to emphasize the core earnings from the bank but losses, whether from the bank subsidiary or the parent holding company (which houses $81 million of nonperforming largely construction), will diminish the company’zs capital,” Miller wrote. “We would avoid the shares until the company is better capitalized and there is bettee clarity into the lossees from its commercial real estate BankAtlantic Bancorp Chairman and CEO Alan Levan believewshis company’s stock price will bounce back. , the Levan-ledd holding company that has majorityg ownershipof BankAtlantic, spent $1.1 million buying up BankAtlanticc shares in the fourth quarter.
It did this because the stock is undervalued, he said. Levan said the improvement in the bank’ s core earnings would serve it wellonce Florida’z economy starts recovering, althougbh he could not predict when that would He recounted the recessions in Florida over the past 25 year s and how there were huge supplies of unsolc condos and homes in those years too. Yet, Florida’xs economy bounced back every time because peoplw want to live inthis state, he said. “Absolutely we are optimistic that these markets willimprove and, as they improve, BankAtlantic’s earningds will improve dramatically over time,” Levan said.