Owners Not Bankers: HIFS Annual Meeting (Issue #92)
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“Think of ourselves as owners first, not bankers” - Patrick Gaughen, COO & President The managers at Hingham Institution For Savings (NASDAQ: HIFS, “Hingham”) are the first to admit last year was sub-optimal to say the least for the company. That being said a not good year for Hingham isn’t as bad as it seems. For example, the typical high 10s or low 20s ROEs for Hingham are rare in the industry. In this particularly poor year the company produced 6.57% which is industry average, but as President and COO of Hingham Patrick Gaughen says, “[it’s] not acceptable for us.” This a prime example of the Kaizen, continuous improvement, approach Hingham has towards banking. Similarly to the ROE, the efficiency ratio significantly deteriorated almost tripling to 57.18%. Again this is still strong for the industry but Hingham holds itself to a higher standard. Still, during this time, they have had a 13.6% CAGR on book value. Meanwhile, deposits have had an 8.4% CAGR. As mentioned by management this needs to increase in order to sustainably grow book value.
Owners Not Bankers: HIFS Annual Meeting (Issue #92)
Owners Not Bankers: HIFS Annual Meeting…
Owners Not Bankers: HIFS Annual Meeting (Issue #92)
“Think of ourselves as owners first, not bankers” - Patrick Gaughen, COO & President The managers at Hingham Institution For Savings (NASDAQ: HIFS, “Hingham”) are the first to admit last year was sub-optimal to say the least for the company. That being said a not good year for Hingham isn’t as bad as it seems. For example, the typical high 10s or low 20s ROEs for Hingham are rare in the industry. In this particularly poor year the company produced 6.57% which is industry average, but as President and COO of Hingham Patrick Gaughen says, “[it’s] not acceptable for us.” This a prime example of the Kaizen, continuous improvement, approach Hingham has towards banking. Similarly to the ROE, the efficiency ratio significantly deteriorated almost tripling to 57.18%. Again this is still strong for the industry but Hingham holds itself to a higher standard. Still, during this time, they have had a 13.6% CAGR on book value. Meanwhile, deposits have had an 8.4% CAGR. As mentioned by management this needs to increase in order to sustainably grow book value.