BANKING

Westcorp Touted: Falling stock prices produce bargains, and well-known Wall Street money manager Peter Lynch thinks that Westcorp Inc. in Irvine is one of the nation’s better values.

So far, though, the holding company for Western Financial Savings Bank is waiting for Wall Street to share his enthusiasm.

Lynch, vice chairman of Fidelity Management & Research, recently picked Westcorp as one of eight financial institutions and 48 companies overall that are recovering from the recession’s doldrums with stock prices well under their true value.

Westcorp, through Western Financial, is “a very attractive auto finance company, which alone justifies more than the price of the stock,” he said in the April 25 issue of Barron’s business and financial weekly. Also through the thrift, the company makes home loans, and the two lines of business “are worth twice the price of the stock,” he said.

At the time his interview appeared in Barron’s, the price of Westcorp stock was $9 a share on the New York Stock Exchange. It rose only 37.5 cents by the end of trading Thursday.

Investors seemed a bit more impressed with his choice of Western Digital Corp. in Irvine, the only other Orange County company on his list. Stock in the computer disk drive maker was selling at $14.125 a share when Lynch’s interview was published. It closed Thursday at $16.25 a share on the New York Stock Exchange.