Activist Joseph Stilwell’s Top Small Cap Picks

Moving onto the second largest holding of Stilwell in his fund’s portfolio, FIRST FINANCIAL NORTHWEST, INC. (NASDAQ:FFNW). His stake in the $182.31 million savings and loan company also remained unchanged at 1.32 million shares valued at $15.87 million. FIRST FINANCIAL NORTHWEST, INC. (NASDAQ:FFNW)’s stock is up over 15.6% year-to-date amid fourth quarter financial results which included an Earnings per Share (EPS) of $0.20, beating estimates by $0.03. Revenues of $8.15 million, however, came light, missing the estimates by $0.05 million, and were also 5.1% less on a year-over-year basis. Among the hedge funds that we track at Insider Monkey, Jim Simons‘ Renaissance Technologies and Matthew Hulsizer’s Peak6 Capital Management had the greatest investment in FIRST FINANCIAL NORTHWEST, INC. (NASDAQ:FFNW). After increasing their stakes by 17% and 41% during the fourth quarter, their holdings stood at 251,300 shares valued at $3.03 million and 48,200 shares valued at $580,000 respectively.

Provident Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PROV) was next in line with the company’s holding constituting 6.11% of Stilwell Value’s portfolio value. 17,200 additional shares were purchased to put the stake in the bank at 701,900 shares valued at $10.62 million. Provident Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PROV) acts as a trustee for the bank’s real estate transactions, holding real estate for investment, mortgage banking and community banking. The financial services company caters to consumers and small to medium-sized businesses. Fred Cummings of Elizabeth Park Capital Management aggressively increased his stake in the company by 101,077% during the fourth quarter to 165,900 shares valued at $2.51 million. With a market cap of $147.61 million, Provident Financial Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:PROV) is currently trading at a forward earnings multiple of 14.32.

Disclosure: None