Michael F. Price’s MFP Partners, a value focused hedge fund based in New York, has exercised warrants equivalent to 750,000 shares of West Coast Bancorp (NASDAQ:WCBO) common stock, and additional preference shares convertible to 87,820 shares of common stock. However, according to the Form 13D filing, Michael F. Price’s still holds 8.8% of the company, unchanged.
The filing excludes the converted warrants, and preferred stock, in the total owned. The hedge fund, which was founded by Michael Price in 1998, held 1,707,000 shares, as of June 30th 2012, in the financial services company, which is based in western Oregon.
Additionally, MFP partners could only convert the shares upon transferring them to an unaffiliated third party, and hence the exclusion of the underlying shares of common stock in the filing. Indicatively, Michael Price’s holding in West Coast Bancorp (NASDAQ:WCBO) does not give him or any of his partner companies, MFP Partners or MFP investors LLC, voting powers, or the power to dispose.
West Coast Bancorp has 19.3 million shares outstanding, with 14 million floated, and has a market capitalization of $433.77 million. Michael F. Price is one of the banks largest shareholders.
West Coast Bancorp has a profit margin of 32.55%, and an operating margin of 21.43%, for the trailing twelve months. It’s cash reserves for the most recent quarter stood at $111.68 million, or $5.84 cash per share. West Coast Bancorp shares are up 56.44%, since 12 months ago, more than double S&P500. It’s trailing P/E ratio is at 13 times, below the industry average of 15.5 times; while the forecast 12 months from now is at 19 times.
At the time of this writing, West Coast Bancorp (NASDAQ:WCBO) stock was trading at $22.67 per share, up 2 cents, or 0.09%, from yesterday’s close.
