Hudson City Bancorp Inc.  (HCBK) Trade Now »     Rate HCBK  -  Discuss HCBK  -  Add to Watch List        

Filed under: Management, Newsletters, Stocks to Buy, Housing, Recession

"Hudson City Bancorp (NASDAQ: HCBK) is a fortress of safety with plenty of upside potential," says value investor Nathan Slaughter.

In his Half-Priced Stocks, he explains, "The 140-year old bank is a classic example of the tortoise and hare fable. Its slower, measured approach has paid off handsomely and keptit at arms length from the problems plaguing other banks."

Filed under: S and P 500, Stocks to Buy, Financial Crisis

This post is part of a series featuring bargain stocks that are worth a look now. See more Cheap Stocks.

If you had to judge solely by its year-to-date price action, you would probably never guess that Hudson City Bancorp (NASDAQ: HCBK) is, well, a bank. The shares are currently holding onto a year-to-date gain, and they're thriving for good reason. Paramus, New Jersey-based HCBK is feeling so flush, it recently rejected the opportunity to rake in some of the government's TARP funds.

Sy Jacobs, founder of JAM Asset Management, foresaw the housing slump and subprime macro fallout. He now tells Barron’s that investors erroneously assumed Bear Stearns was a market bottom.<!----> More pain is ahead for the economy and financials in particular. Increasing defaults in banks’ core business of construction loans will cause many to disappear. Survivors, however, will gain back lending market share that they lost to “the Countrywide Financials.”

Picks and Pans:

Shorts:

Hundson City Bancorp is a Savings and Loan whom makes most of it's money by lending to homeowners in New York and New Jersy.

Here is a press release from Coumo

WASHINGTON, D.C (November 5, 2007) – New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo today endorsed federal legislation that will create new protections for consumers and investors and prohibit the improper coercion of appraisers to meet target appraisals.