This week, I'm looking for the fourth financial services representative of seven for my Ivy portfolio.

That financial services sector includes six industries all Financial Services includes twenty industries ranging from Asset Management to 8 kinds of Banks, Credit, Exchanges, 6 kinds of Insurance, Savings, and all such financial concerns.

Today I'm reviewing a small-cap savings and cooperative bank named Northwest Bancshares Inc. Its trading ticker symbol is NWBI.

Northwest Bancshares Inc is a stockholding company for Northwest Bank. Northwest Bank is a stock savings bank and community-oriented financial institution offering personal and banking business solutions, investment management, and trust services and insurance products.

It also offers consumer finance loans through a wholly owned subsidiary. The bank's loan portfolio segment consists of personal banking and business banking loans. Personal banking includes residential mortgages, home equity loans, and other consumer loans.

Business banking loans consist of commercial real estate loans and commercial loans. Net interest income is the company's primary contributor to revenue.

As of January 22, 2019, it operated 162 full-service community-banking offices and 10 freestanding drive-through facilities in Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio.

Northwest Bancshares, Inc. was founded in 1896 and is headquartered in Warren, Pennsylvania.

I use three key data points to gauge the value of any dividend equity-like Northwest Bancshares Inc:

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Besides those three, several other keys will finally unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

Those first three primary keys, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money.

NWBI Price

Northwest's price per share closed at $17.08 yesterday. A year ago its price was $16.69. The price rose $0.39 or 2.3% in the past year.

Assuming Northwest's stock trades in the range of $14 to $18 this year, Northwest's recent $17.08 price could rise by $0.92 and go to $18.00 by early-April, 2020.

NWBI Dividends

Northwest's most recent Quarterly dividend was $0.18 declared January 22nd and paid, February 14th.

That $0.18 Q dividend equates to an annual payout of $0.72 for a yield of 4.22% at yesterday's $17.08 closing price.

Gains For NWBI?

Adding the $0.72 annual estimated dividend to my $0.92 estimate of Donegal's price upside shows a $1.64 potential gross annual gain, per share, which will be reduced by costs to trade those shares.

Say we put a little over $1,000.00 today at the $17.08 recent stock price would buy us 59 Northwest Bancshares Inc shares.

A $10 broker fee paid half at purchase and half at sale costs $0.17 per share.

Subtract that $0.17 brokerage cost from the estimated $1.64 gross annual gain leaves a net gain of $1.47 X 59 shares

= $86.73 or a 8.6% net gain on a $1,007.72 investment.

Therefore, Northwest Bancshares Inc, whose trading ticker symbol is NWBI, now shows a possible net gain of nearly 9% including a 4.22% dividend yield.

Four brokers cover this stock:

Three say 'hold" NWBI.

One says "sell" NWBI.

Therefore, you can look at  Northwest Bancshares Inc and see it has made money, is making money, and could net 8.6% gains including a 4.22% dividend yield. It could be more, it could be less.

The above speculation is based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen to determine if Northwest Bancshares Inc is worth your time and money.