Flagstar: A Dumpster Fire Or Discarded Gem?

There's just something about dumpster fire names. Not the beautiful 20x EPS compounders that everyone dotes on, but the absolute train wrecks that always interest me. In this case, I’m talking about a bank where every “professional” looks at the mere utterance of the name with mockery all over their face.

“You want to buy what?”

“You know that thing is terrible right?”

“I wouldn’t buy that with your money.”

“You’re insane.”

Statements like this are wonderful to me. Because hidden below them are sometimes absolute discarded gems. And one of those is on my radar right now. Flagstar (FLG) the artist formerly known as New York Community Bank is that absolutely beautiful disaster that caught my eye. The epicenter for ineptitude in the banking space. Loaded up on CRE, NY multifamily, a terrible deposit base, regulatory bungling, and a name that was synonomous near failure.

But what do they look like today? That is the question.

What follows is a surgical, yet plain-spoken take down of the bear cases and why I think owning the name is actually ….