axp posts
Posted Jun 18th 2009 1:50PM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, American Express (AXP), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Visa Inc. (V)
Discover Financial Services (NYSE:
DFS), a credit-card company that competes with
Visa (NYSE:
V),
MasterCard (NYSE:
MA), and
American Express (NYSE:
AXP), reported earnings for the second quarter. According to this
news summary, Discover beat expectations by posting a loss of $0.18 per share. The market thought that the loss would be as high as $0.29 per share.
If you read the actual press release, you'll see that Discover, on a reported basis, made $0.43 per share. However, we must remember that this profit included an antitrust settlement sourced to Visa and MasterCard. So, once you get rid of that money, you come up with a loss for the quarter.
Continue reading Discover Financial Services beats in Q2 -- buy the stock?
Posted Jun 9th 2009 4:09PM by Jon Ogg
Filed under: American Express (AXP), Procter and Gamble (PG), Texas Instruments (TXN), Marvell Technology Group (MRVL), Suntech Power Hldgs ADS (STP)

Today was one of those days where the overall market direction never felt entrenched nor felt certain. The news of ten banks
getting to pay back TARP funds created mixed reactions, as the news was expected. Positive guidance from a chip leader may have kept the wheels on the cart for technology stocks. Oil also spent much of the day flirting with the $70 per barrel mark.
With the swings we are seeing from positive to negative, it is just further evidence that there is a battleground between bulls and bears forming. So far the bulls are managing to keep the high ground. Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:
DJIA
S&P500
NASDAQ
Top Analyst UpgradesTop Analyst DowngradesContinue reading Closing Bell: Bulls hold the high ground (AXP, STP, PG, TXN, SQNM, MRVL)
Posted Jun 8th 2009 10:10AM by Mark Fightmaster
Filed under: JPMorgan Chase (JPM), American Express (AXP), BB and T (BBT), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Morgan Stanley (MS), U.S. Bancorp (USB), Financial Crisis

This morning, the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected announce that some banks will be allowed to
repay the money lent to them under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Some of the banks expected to receive approval are
Goldman Sachs (NYSE:
GS),
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:
JPM),
American Express (NYSE:
AXP),
Morgan Stanley (NYSE:
MS),
State Street (NYSE:
STT) and
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:
USB). All of these banks have expressed interest in repaying the government.
What is interesting is that there will be yet another Czar joining the White House, a "Repayment Czar," (what is the deal with the media's fascination with Russian royalty?) or as the administration will call the position, the "
Special Master for Compensation."
Continue reading Fed to okay TARP repayment for some banks, appoint a Pay Czar
Posted Jun 6th 2009 2:10PM by Connie Madon
Filed under: Management, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), American Express (AXP), Federal Reserve
Well, now it seems that even the big boys have to play by the rules. What do I mean play by the rules? Apparently, if a bank wants to pay back the TARP monies, they must demonstrate that they can raise equity.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) were the only two banks that did not raise equity.
So there was an exchange between regulators and Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan's chief executive, who said that he did not believe that ability to tap capital markets should have been relevant for his bank. He went on to say, "Any argument you can think of, you could assume we made with our regulators. And as you could also expect, they won.The primary reason was access to equity capital markets, and its hard for me to imagine that really applies in the JPMorgan case." So it seems that the exchange was spirited to say the least.
Continue reading Regulators force JPMorgan and Amex to raise equity
Posted May 12th 2009 12:30PM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Analyst reports, Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), American Express (AXP), Bank of America (BAC), Wells Fargo (WFC), Financial Crisis

Meredith Whitney, bank analyst extraordinaire, reiterated what she's been saying from long before the financial crisis propelled us into the worst recession in most people's memories.
Banks are overvalued, she said, and the government enabled them to have better first quarter earnings than they should.
Whitney said that "the underlying core, earnings power of these banks is negligible," and added that as consumer liquidity retracts and consumer credit contracts, "consumer spending is going to be less than people expect going forward."
Continue reading Whitney calls bank rally 'the great government momentum trade'
Posted May 9th 2009 12:40PM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI), Hansen Natural (HANS), Walt Disney (DIS), American Express (AXP), News Corp'B' (NWS), Alcatel-LucentADS (ALU), Tyson Foods'A' (TSN), Symantec Corp (SYMC), Las Vegas Sands (LVS), Vonage Holdings (VG), Blackstone Group L.P (BX), Garmin Ltd (GRMN), Marvel Entertainment (MVL)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Disney, Cisco, News Corp., Marvel, Sirius, Blackstone and more
Posted Apr 30th 2009 9:30AM by Steven Mallas
Filed under: Earnings reports, American Express (AXP), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Visa Inc. (V)
Visa (NYSE: V), whose colleagues include American Express (NYSE: AXP), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), and Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), reported a Q2 profit on Wednesday that was surprisingly strong. On an adjusted basis, earnings came in at 73 cents per share. Analysts were banking on only 64 cents per share, according to Reuters.
Quite frankly, I can see the disparity between Wall Street's thinking and the ultimate reality. I mean, the economy has been bad (to state the obvious), and people aren't spending as much. This means that they aren't using their credit cards like they used to. Ergo, you might expect Visa to post a lower number.
Continue reading Let's give Visa some credit for its Q2 performance
Posted Apr 25th 2009 8:40AM by Trey Thoelcke
Filed under: Earnings reports, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Ford Motor (F), American Express (AXP), Boeing Co (BA), Hershey Co (HSY), Coach Inc (COH), Yum Brands (YUM), Contl Airlines'B' (CAL), Wells Fargo (WFC), JetBlue Airways (JBLU), SanDisk Corp (SNDK)
Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Apple, Ford, Microsoft, Wells Fargo, Boeing, American Express and more
Posted Apr 20th 2009 10:30AM by Jim Cramer
Filed under: PepsiCo (PEP), Ford Motor (F), General Motors (GM), Market matters, Walgreen Co (WAG), Citigroup Inc. (C), Target Corp. (TGT), Brinker Intl (EAT), Penney (J.C.) (JCP), Abbott Laboratories (ABT), American Express (AXP), AutoNation Inc (AN), AutoZone Inc (AZO), Centex Corp (CTX), Charles Schwab Corp (SCHW), Kellogg Co (K), Hershey Co (HSY), Sears Holdings (SHLD), CVS Corp (CVS), Gap Inc (GPS), General Mills (GIS), Procter and Gamble (PG), Yum Brands (YUM), Kohl's Corp (KSS), Johnson Controls (JCI), Gilead Sciences (GILD), Nordstrom, Inc (JWN), Unilever ADR (UL), Jones Apparel Group (JNY), Cramer on BloggingStocks, Recession, E*TRADE (ETFC)
TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer is seeing signs of a coming boom, but he's still being cautious here. If you had to define the early cycle, if you had to outline what stocks should be soaring coming out of a recession into a boom and which ones should be faltering, you would have to say the action in this market in the last month is the quintessential behavioral pattern.
What are the components of the early cycle? First, it's the homebuilders. As is typical coming out of a recession, the stocks precede the bottom of housing. That's exactly what's happening with the lowest permits and highest affordability and best mortgage rates and massive inventory. Everywhere, except on Wall Street reporting, the bottom is bursting out. When you read the lead story in the Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and it is all about the thousands of prospective homebuyers heading south to pick up condos and homes for half of what they were worth two years ago -- or even less -- and you know that virtually no one has broken ground in the Sunshine State in a year, you can bet that the bottom's actually behind us. This housing market has wiped out all but the most stable private builders and even the public ones are merging as we know from
Pulte (NYSE:
PHM) (
Cramer's Take) and
Centex (NYSE:
CTX) (
Cramer's Take). So, in the next cycle, you can see some profitability developing year over year even though the new homes don't have much margin because the foreclosed homes next door are going for a song. And don't believe this won't change the dynamic of future foreclosures. In most areas, rent is higher than the interest on mortgages, so you will find that second or third job needed to stay in your home. The incentive structure's radically different than a year ago.
Continue reading Cramer on BloggingStocks: The seductive pull of the early cycle
Posted Apr 7th 2009 10:50AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Microsoft (MSFT), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), Nokia Corp. (NOK), American Express (AXP), Automatic Data Proc (ADP), Analyst initiations, Symantec Corp (SYMC)
Analyst upgrades:
- RBC Capital believes software stock fundamentals have bottomed and that the next several quarters should see reduced earnings risk, easier comps, stimulus spending benefits, and lower FX headwinds. The firm upgraded Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Taleo (NASDAQ: TLEO), Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) and Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) to Outperform from Sector Perform.
- Rodman & Renshaw upgraded Provectus (OTC: PVCT) to Outperform from Market Perform. The firm has increased conviction in the success of the company's ongoing trial of PV-10 in melanoma.
- Citigroup upgraded shares of American Express (NYSE: AXP) to Hold from Sell as it believes the risk/reward is balanced at current levels and that there are signs of potential credit market stabilization. The firm raised its price target on shares to $16 from $9.
- Brinker (NYSE: EAT) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Wachovia.
- PG&E (NYSE: PCG) was raised to Outperform from Neutral at Credit Suisse.
- Federal-Mogul (NASDAQ: FDML) was lifted to Conviction Buy from Buy at Goldman.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: MSFT, AXP, RBS, FIATY, NFLX ...
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 11:40AM by Peter Cohan
Filed under: eBay (EBAY), Motorola (MOT), Citigroup Inc. (C), American Express (AXP), Financial Crisis
There could be an opportunity to tweak the way we pay CEOs of big public companies. I hope this doesn't sound too harsh. But when you consider that the average 2008 compensation for the 10 highest paid public company CEOs was $40.7 million, while their companies lost half, or $30 billion, worth of their stock market value -- I wonder whether some change may be in order.
The year 2008 put a big exclamation mark on, hopefully, the end of an eight-year sentence of stabbing common shareholders in the back. Of the 10 highest paid CEOs, here are the four who destroyed the most stock market value while getting well above average pay. The companies are listed in descending order of the percentage destruction in stock market value, along with the CEO's 2008 compensation and loss in stock market capitalization:
-
Citigroup (NYSE:
C) paid CEO Vikram Pandit $38.2 million while its stock fell 78% destroying $124 billion in stock market value
-
Motorola (NYSE:
MOT) CEO Sanjay Jha made $104 million while overseeing a 75% stock plunge which wiped out $27.9 billion in stock market value
Continue reading Pay for performance? Try pay for failure: CEOs paid millions to lose billions
Posted Mar 25th 2009 11:30AM by Eric Buscemi
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), PepsiCo (PEP), Netflix, Inc. (NFLX), American Express (AXP), Research in Motion (RIMM), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), Analyst initiations, Rio Tinto plc ADS (RTP)
Analyst upgrades:
- JMP Securities upgraded CB Richard Ellis (NYSE: CBG) to Outperform from Market Perform. The analyst believes the new Public-Private Investment Program will create liquidity, which will result in some degree of activity. Shares were also upgraded at JP Morgan to Overweight from Neutral.
- Thomas Weisel upgraded Linear Tech (NASDAQ: LLTC) to Overweight from Market Weight due to stabilizing business and favorable end market exposure.
- UBS upgraded PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) to Buy from Neutral and raised its target to $60 from $57 due to moderating input costs, earnings and investment flexibility, improving U.S. beverage business, and leverage from its market share in food.
- Tibco (NASDAQ: TIBX) was raised to Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
- Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG) was upgraded at ING Group to Buy from Hold.
- Hospira (NYSE: HSP) was upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Leerink.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: PEP, AXP, RTP, WSM, RIMM, HPQ ...
Posted Mar 17th 2009 7:35AM by Melly Alazraki
Filed under: Before the bell, International markets, Market matters, Nokia Corp. (NOK), Alcoa Inc (AA), American Express (AXP), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Economic data, Oil, Housing, Federal Reserve, Financial Crisis
Stocks were poised for a moderately higher open this morning, as investors try to continue last week's rally. This morning, investors will focus on data about inflation and the housing market.
In general, though, the mood has soured somewhat after Alcoa (NYSE: AA) slashed its dividend and gave a gloomy outlook Monday, American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) said Monday its credit card defaults and deliquencies have risen over the past three months, and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) announced layoffs Tuesday in response to lower demand.
- At 8:30 a.m. Eastern, an hour before the opening bell, February data for housing starts and building permits are due out. According to Briefing.com, economists expect housing starts have fallen further in February, as have building permits.
- At the same time, Producer Price Index (PPI), a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, is forecast to have risen 0.4% in February. Core PPI, which excludes the volatile food and energy prices, is expected to be up 0.1%.
- The Federal Reserve also starts its two-day policy meeting today.
Continue reading Before the bell: Stocks to start higher as bulls attempt to restart rally
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