Irwin Financial Corp (IFC)

gameguru (< 20) Submitted: 8/16/07 11:47 AM : Start Price: $9.83 IFC Score: -43.65

With a company in as much recent trouble as Irwin Financial, you have to ask yourself two questions:

1) Is the company likely to stay in business?
2) Can the company return to profitability?

If the answer to the both is affirmative, then you'll begin to smell the sweet fragrance of opportunity - some would describe that fragrance as a smoldering cigar butt...
At prices around $10, IFC is selling for about 60% of book value. As of the end of the 2nd quarter, it is sitting on 3.3B of deposits and is showing a profit from continuing operations. They've sold off their mortgage business and are still booking losses from that unit, but now that it is divested, they can start concentrating on their other units. The market will likely continue to punish them for past missteps, but once the realization sinks in that this business is still viable, the stock price will follow. Patience required.

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