Synovus Fin. Corp. (SNV)

SSG and PERT A (11-12-2005) | Google “stocks: snv” | Company Website

We took an initial position today in SNV. It has a projected average return of 18.7% and a RQR quality rating of 70.1. The director of investor relations spoke at the Better Investing National Conference in Atlanta. Two key points from the presentation were that SNV is well managed and the price of banks have been driven down based on concern about bank profitability due to the increase in long term interest rates. SNV has maintained very solid profitability with an return on assets (a key metric for banks) of about 1.9%. Return on equity has been steady aroud 18%. See Morningstar profitability summary below.

Business Description. Synovus Financial Corp., a holding company, provides various financial services. It operates in two segments, Financial Services and Transaction Processing Services (TPS).

The Financial Services segment provides commercial banking services, including commercial, financial, agricultural, and real estate loans; retail banking services, including accepting demand and savings deposits; individual, consumer, installment, and mortgage loans; safe deposit services; leasing services; automated banking and fund transfer services; and bank credit card services. It also provides portfolio management services; securities brokerage; trust services; insurance agency services; financial planning services; asset management services; and investment advisory services.

The TPS segment primarily provides electronic payment processing services in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Puerto Rico, and Europe. It also provides back-end processing services to support merchant processing and offers other products and services to support its processing services. In addition, the TPS segment provides commercial printing and related services; programming support and assistance with the conversion of card portfolios to TS2; recovery collections, bankruptcy process and legal account management, and skip tracing services; Internet, Intranet, and client/server software solutions for commercial card management programs; targeted loyalty consulting, as well as travel, gift card, and reward programs; gift card processing services to Japanese clients; prepaid card solutions; and sells and leases computer related equipment associated with its electronic payment processing services. As of April 26, 2005, Synovus operated 41 banks and other Synovus’ offices in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee. The company was formed in 1888 and was formerly known as CB&T Bancshares, Inc. It changed its name to Synovus Financial Corp. in 1989. Synovus is headquartered in Columbus, Georgia.