Morning Commentary: Preferreds stronger in after-holiday trade; Fortress Biotech on tap

By Cristal Cody

Tupelo, Miss., Nov. 12 – Preferred stock indexes opened Tuesday mostly stronger with one issuer moving forward with an add-on.

The Wells Fargo Hybrid and Preferred Securities index was up 0.10% over the morning.

The U.S. iShares Preferred Stock ETF rose 10 cents, or 0.29%, to $37.07 early Tuesday.

In the primary market, Fortress Biotech, Inc. announced plans to price a registered add-on to its 9.375% $25-par series A perpetual preferred stock.

The preferreds were down 6 cents, or 0.29%, in light early trading at $20.98 on volume of about 2,100 shares.

The securities were last reported traded under the symbol “FBIOP” on the Nasdaq Capital Market on Monday at $21.04 a share.

The reopened securities will have the same terms as the 1,039,292 currently outstanding shares of the series A preferred stock.

Fortress Biotech originally issued the preferreds in a $25 million offering at par on Nov. 14, 2017 and registered to sell up to $26 million more of the shares on April 5, 2018 at the same terms.

In new issue secondary trading early Tuesday, Allstate Corp.’s 4.75% series I fixed-rate non-cumulative perpetual preferred stock opened down 4 cents, or 0.16%, at $24.78.

The preferreds, trading under the temporary symbol “ASTLZ”, saw trading volume of about 123,000 shares over the morning.

Allstate sold $300 million of the $25-par preferreds (Baa2/BBB) at par on Nov. 4.

The preferreds are expected to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ALLPrI.”

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