CUBI

Customers Bancorp is a ~$24.9B-asset regional bank trading at a genuinely undemanding valuation: 12.6x FY2025 diluted EPS of $6.26, and a $2.71B market cap against $2.12B of stockholders' equity (~1.3x book). FY2025 was a recovery year — net income rose 23.5% to $224M and EPS rose 23.0% — but that only claws back ground lost in the trough: net income ran $315M (2021) → $228M → $250M → $181M (2024) → $224M (2025), so earnings are still below the 2021 peak and have been volatile rather than durably compounding. That earnings inconsistency, plus a 10.6% ROE that is merely adequate for a bank, is why this is a hold rather than a buy despite the low multiple.

The balance sheet reads conservatively for a bank in this cycle. Management reports ~$6.2B of immediate FRB/FHLB liquidity plus $4.4B cash on hand (cash & equivalents grew 16.5% to $4.41B), and FDIC-insured deposits at ~59%, rising to 68% including collateralized/affiliate deposits — a direct answer to the post-2023 regional-bank deposit-flight fear. Equity grew 15.2% and retained earnings 15.8%, and the firm has deliberately shifted toward floating/adjustable low-credit-risk commercial loans while hedging asset sensitivity ahead of the Fed's December 2025 25bp cut. Operating cash flow of $495M comfortably covers modest $13.7M capex.