Is Ocwen’s Stock a Screaming Buy? Hail India?

Ocwen Financial – which will soon fall into the ‘megaservicer’ category – saw its stock drop 3% Thursday after reporting strong earnings. The reason for the fall: it missed the expectations of certain analysts. But rest assured: Ocwen’s share price might have a long way to run. Not only is it buying MSRs on the cheap (while commercial banks howl about excessive servicing regulations and Basel III) but it is rapidly gaining a reputation as a low coast servicer that doesn’t think twice about shipping U.S. (white collar) jobs overseas – a touchy issue for both mortgage bankers and politicians. However, it’s easier to ship servicing jobs to Bangalore than production employees. I doubt Ocwen will attempt to ship origination jobs to India as it focuses on growing its production arm. After all, loan officers must be licensed with the states, something that the company cannot avoid by using ‘virtual’ LOs in India.