Synovus Financial Corp a buy?

(To increase the size of font – hold down the Ctrl key and keep pressing +) Well what can I say? She’s taken right off - http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:SNV The Question: do you jump on the train or sit this one out?

Before we dive in,it’s only fair that I fully disclose that I jumped in last week at USD$2.30 something – so what you need to keep in mind is I have a vested interest to recommend this stock. And since we all have “I trust no one but myself,” helmets on, it’s only fair that I come clean.

The way I see it Synovus is good to go right up to $3.00 and possibly higher in the near term – now bear in mind, this isn’t exactly a HSBC or Morgan Stanley play – Synovus is Synovus, it’s basically a retail bank based along the Bible belt in the US – Georgia, South Carolina, Tenessee, Alabama etc –  its so off the beaten track that you will probably only hear about it when it’s held up by really stupid people who still believe you can rob banks like Bonnie & Clyde. Only these days for some funny reason. Instead of sporting Cowboy hats they prefer to dress up as Darth Vader (I ain’t kidding – bank robbers have taken to the  force in a big way these days. So would banks as well I suppose which could explain why after a bank heist one always hears sirens from that other force.) Check this out!

Why do I believe Synovus still has plenty of legs to move upwards? Well if you want to look a fair value /book value / PE ratio etc – I could bore you blind. But I would prefer it if you do that sort of research yourself. I think you owe it to yourself to do your own due diligence and research – and I am just being very frank about it.

Besides that’s not the main reason why I believe this stock is set to rally – these days sentiment and not book plays a preponderant role in shaping demand and supply - the main reason has to do the quarterly results that rolled out today suggesting that housing is picking up, albeit very slightly. Though let’s be clear – I DO NOT EXPECT OPTIMISM TO BE LONG LIVED.

These days a bit of good news goes a long way in the zombie housing market. The other reason I suspect has to do with the entire banking industry as a whole. As you might already know the EU recently conducted their own stress test on banks – and generally, most of them were given the thumbs up.

Between me and you, this stress test is all a crock of shit – I mean if those same people who validated those banks used them same method to quality inspect automobiles - 30% of motorist would probably drive no more than 2 miles before the steering wheel comes loose just after their engine explodes – that basically sums up what I think about their BS stress test.

The long and short is the banking industry as a whole is still seriously fucked up in more ways than I can possibly elaborate – and the Europeans just rigged the test bench.

So it’s fair to say what we may be seeing here is just a short term feel good effect / I would rate this as a super high risk play – so my expectation is anywhere between 20% to 30% within a time span a week or more. Strictly hello, bang-bang, bye-bye play.

Happy Hunting

Darkness 2010