Penns Woods Bancorp Value Stock - Dividend - Research Selection

Description of the company

On January 7, 1983, Penns Woods Bancorp, Inc. (the “Company”) was incorporated under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a bank holding company. In connection with the organization of the Company, Jersey Shore State Bank ("JSSB"), a Pennsylvania state-chartered bank, became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. On June 1, 2013, the Company acquired Luzerne Bank ("Luzerne") with Luzerne operating as a subsidiary of the Company (JSSB and Luzerne are collectively referred to as the "Banks"). The Company’s two other wholly-owned subsidiaries are Woods Real Estate Development Company, Inc. and Woods Investment Company, Inc. The Company is also a partner in United Insurance Solutions, LLC. The Company’s business has consisted primarily of managing and supervising the Banks, and its principal source of income has been dividends paid by the Banks and Woods Investment Company, Inc.

The Banks are engaged in commercial and retail banking which includes the acceptance of time, savings, and demand deposits, the funding of commercial, consumer, and mortgage loans, and safe deposit services. Utilizing a branch office network, ATMs, Internet, and telephone banking delivery channels, the Banks deliver their products and services to the communities they reside in.

In October 2000, JSSB acquired The M Group, Inc. D/B/A The Comprehensive Financial Group (“The M Group”). The M Group, which operates as a subsidiary of JSSB, offers insurance and securities brokerage services. Securities are offered by The M Group through Voya Financial, a registered broker-dealer.

Neither the Company nor the Banks anticipate that compliance with environmental laws and regulations will have any material effect on capital expenditures, earnings, or their competitive position. The Banks are not dependent on a single customer or a few customers, the loss of whom would have a material effect on the business of the Banks.

JSSB employed 242 persons, Luzerne employed 73 persons, and The M Group employed 4 persons as of December 31, 2017 in either a full-time or part-time capacity. The Company does not have any employees. The principal officers of the Banks also serve as officers of the Company.

Woods Investment Company, Inc., a Delaware holding company, maintains an investment portfolio that is managed for total return and to fund dividend payments to the Company.

Woods Real Estate Development Company, Inc. serves the Company through its acquisition and ownership of certain properties utilized by the Bank.

United Insurance Solutions, LLC., has been formed and will be offering property and casualty and auto insurance products within the Company's market footprint during 2018.

We post publicly available reports required to be filed with the SEC on our website, www.jssb.com, as soon as reasonably practicable after filing such reports with the SEC. The required reports are available free of charge through our website. Information available on our website is not part of or incorporated by reference into this Report or any other report filed by this Company with the SEC.

Regulation and Supervision

The Company is a registered bank holding company and, as such is subject to the provisions of the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended (the “BHCA”) and to supervision and examination by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (the “FRB”). During 2017, the Company elected to become a financial holding company under the BHCA and the regulations of the FRB. The Banks are also subject to the supervision and examination by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (the “FDIC”), as their primary federal regulator and as the insurer of the Banks' deposits. The Banks are also regulated and examined by the Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities (the “Department”).

The insurance activities of The M Group are subject to regulation by the insurance departments of the various states in which The M Group conducts business, including principally the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance. The securities brokerage activities of The M Group are subject to regulation by federal and state securities commissions.

The insurance activities of United Insurance Solutions, LLC are subject to regulation by the Pennsylvania Department of Insurance.

The FRB has issued regulations under the BHCA that require a bank holding company to serve as a source of financial and managerial strength to its subsidiary banks. As a result, the FRB, pursuant to such regulations, may require the Company to stand ready to use its resources to provide adequate capital funds to the Banks during periods of financial stress or adversity. The BHCA requires the Company to secure the prior approval of the FRB before it can acquire all or substantially all of the assets of any bank, or acquire ownership or control of 5% or more of any voting shares of any bank. Such a transaction would also require approval of the Department.

A bank holding company is prohibited under the BHCA from engaging in, or acquiring direct or indirect control of, more than 5% of the voting shares of any company engaged in non-banking activities unless the FRB, by order or regulation, has found such activities to be so closely related to banking or managing or controlling banks as to be a proper incident thereto. Under the BHCA, the FRB has the authority to require a bank holding company to terminate any activity or relinquish control of a non-bank subsidiary (other than a non-bank subsidiary of a bank) upon the FRB’s determination that such activity or control constitutes a serious risk to the financial soundness and stability of any bank subsidiary of the bank holding company.

In July 2013, the federal bank regulatory agencies adopted revisions to the agencies’ capital adequacy guidelines and prompt corrective action rules, which were designed to enhance such requirements and implement the revised standards of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, commonly referred to as Basel III. The final rules generally implement higher minimum capital requirements, add a new common equity tier 1 capital requirement, and establish criteria that instruments must meet to be considered common equity tier 1 capital, additional tier 1 capital or tier 2 capital. The new minimum capital to risk-adjusted assets requirements are a common equity tier 1 capital ratio of 4.5% (6.5% to be considered “well capitalized”) and a tier 1 capital ratio of 6.0%, increased from 4.0% (and increased from 6.0% to 8.0% to be considered “well capitalized”); the total capital ratio remains at 8.0% under the new rules (10.0% to be considered “well capitalized”). Under the new rules, in order to avoid limitations on capital distributions (including dividend payments and certain discretionary bonus payments to executive officers), a banking organization must hold a capital conservation buffer comprised of common equity tier 1 capital above its minimum risk-based capital requirements in an amount greater than 2.5% of total risk-weighted assets. The new minimum capital requirements became effective on January 1, 2015. The capital contribution buffer requirements phase in over a three-year period that began on January 1, 2016.