Continue reading Chasing Value: Goldman Sachs Fraud Charge Creates Opportunity

Chasing Value: Goldman Sachs Fraud Charge Creates Opportunity originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 Apr 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is a financial stock, and as such, you've got a right to be cautious about it, considering what's happened to the economy over the last couple years. Today, however, the equity, whose colleagues include Bank of America (BAC) and Citigroup (C), appears pretty appealing. Wall Street enjoyed the results of the bank's first quarter, expressing its opinion by sending in the buy order.

As of this writing, shares of the company are up well over 3%, on robust volume. The stock has been strong since its last downturn, which ended back in February, according to the one-year chart.

Continue reading JPMorgan Chase Up on Q1 News

JPMorgan Chase Up on Q1 News originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Florida Insurance Bodies to Issue Bonds

Florida Insurance Bodies to Issue Bonds originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading JPMorgan Leads in Year Bankers Make Money on Each Other

JPMorgan Leads in Year Bankers Make Money on Each Other originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

One of the true icons of finance, Goldman Sachs Group (GS), issued its Q4 report this morning. The stock has been weak off the numbers; at the time of this writing, shares were down well over 5%, and volume was very active. Looking through the press release, I didn't come away as bearish as the market. Then again, the session as a whole was rather choppy, so perhaps overall sentiment was exerting an influence. Still, a 5% sell-off is notable.

Let's look at some highlights. For the fourth quarter, Goldman, whose colleagues include JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS), made $8.20 per share. Last year at this time, the company reported a loss of $4.97 per share. Besides improving year-over-year, per-share profit increased over 50% on a sequential basis as well. According to Earnings.com, $5.20 was the number to beat.

Continue reading Goldman Sachs Not In Demand After Q4 Report

Goldman Sachs Not In Demand After Q4 Report originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 15:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Investment Banking Unit Pushes JPM to Strong Profit

Investment Banking Unit Pushes JPM to Strong Profit originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The bailouts of late 2008 and 2009 have cost the American taxpayers $61 billion, according to the Treasury Department, but the banks aren't to blame this time. The auto manufacturer bailout, which includes Chrysler and General Motors (GRM), has cost the country more than $30 billion, with American International Group (AIG) consuming another $30 billion.

Meanwhile, Bank of America (BAC) has already made good with the government, and several banks -- such as Capital One (COF), JP Morgan Chase (JPM) and TCF Financial (TCB) -- only have to clean up situations regarding the warrants they've issued. And interestingly, the losses from the bailouts on AIG and auto manufacturers are being offset by profits from the bank bailouts, which could generate additional funds of up to $19.5 billion.

Continue reading Banks subsidizing auto TARP, extra money could be spent

Banks subsidizing auto TARP, extra money could be spent originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The recent issue of Fortune magazine discusses how the best of the best train, guide and nurture top managers to become the leaders that will propel their corporations successfully forward. They list the top 25 companies, which I have used as the basis of a new review to see how they would fair against common metric screens.

In the past few months, many articles have posited that large-cap stocks should excel in the coming year based on their lagging the market behind smaller, more volatile stocks flying out of the March lows. I do not believe this is universally true. Plenty of large-cap stocks did well, such as Anadarko Petroleum (APC), Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), while many small caps went nowhere. Even among the large caps included in Fortune's "Leadership 25," some have doubled.

Continue reading Serious Money: Fortune's 25 leaders among leaders

Serious Money: Fortune's 25 leaders among leaders originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The latest study that Challenger, Gray & Christmas revealed to BloggingStocks reports that October was the eighth month this year in which CEO turnover was down year-over-year. Through the end of last month, 1,028 CEO positions changed hands -- down 18% from the 1,257 by the same point in 2008. In fact, the tally for the first 10 months of 2009 is the lowest since 2004, when the big office found only 561 new inhabitants.

The financial industry remains the toughest place for CEOs, with 19 leaving the job last month. Even though the situation has gotten easier, this industry still has the highest turnover. For the year, approximately 10% of all CEO departures (106) have been in the financial sector. "The financial industry is still incredibly volatile, as both October and September saw major announcements from leading companies including JP Morgan Chase (JPM), Bank of America (BAC) and last month's bankruptcy of CIT Group, which led to the exit of CEO Jeffrey Peek," John A. Challenger, chief executive officer of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, says.

Continue reading CEO turnover down, not out

CEO turnover down, not out originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading JPMorgan Chase crushes third-quarter earnings forecast

JPMorgan Chase crushes third-quarter earnings forecast originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Consumer bankruptcies have already spiked more than 30% this year, and it looks like the trend shows no signs of flagging. The American Bankruptcy Institute predicts that the tally could hit 1.4 million by the end of the year. So, although there are some experts signaling that the economy is on the upswing, the downstream effects of bankruptcy on consumer spending and corporate balance sheets are going to make it difficult for the market to turn the corner.

In July, more than 126,000 people filed for bankruptcy protection, and the filing rate was up 36.5% for the first six months of 2009 relative to the same period in 2008. The problem is affecting every rung of the social ladder.

Continue reading Consumer bankruptcies set to surge

Consumer bankruptcies set to surge originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 11 Aug 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading JP Morgan easily tops Q2 earnings expectations

JP Morgan easily tops Q2 earnings expectations originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and the U.S. government can't seem to agree what the bank's stock warrants are worth. As a result, JPM has asked the Treasury Department to auction off the warrants publicly in order to determine a fair market price.

The JPM warrants were issued to the government under the terms of its TARP loan. Bailed-out banks have the option to repurchase their own warrants, but only if they can strike a deal with the feds regarding a reasonable price. However, many firms have complained that the Treasury is seeking too high a price for the assets -- putting executives in the awkward position of claiming that their stock just isn't worth that much.

In choosing the auction alternative, JPMorgan is waiving its right to repurchase its own warrants (it could potentially bid through the public auction process, but company executives have decided not to do so). If the stock warrants are successfully auctioned off to a third party, their exercise would be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Continue reading JPMorgan Chase slides after waiving right to buy its stock warrants

JPMorgan Chase slides after waiving right to buy its stock warrants originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In running a very tight stock screen recently for value plays Burlington Northern Santa Fe (NYSE: BNI) showed up on a list of 14 stocks. Interestingly all the large railroad stocks did. This reminded me of several stories I have done on the subject, the most recent being Chasing Value: Watch BNI -- the heck with Citigroup.

To summarize, about six weeks ago a Citigroup (NYSE: C) analyst declared it was time to sell the stock when BNI was trading in the mid $60s -- I said investors should do the opposite, it was a great value. Friday the stock closed at $76.98. Even at this price it is a value and ever more so with oil prices steadly creeping up.

Continue reading Sunday Funnies: Economics -- art or science

Sunday Funnies: Economics -- art or science originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Chasing Value: The safest bank in the U.S. -- Wells Fargo

Chasing Value: The safest bank in the U.S. -- Wells Fargo originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

"What can get this market going again?" asks Chuck Carlson. In The DRIP Investor he says, "It's helpful to understand what stocks within the Dow need to do well for the index to do well."

"Not surprisingly, IBM (NYSE: IBM), the highest-priced stock in the Dow, carries the greatest weighting at more than 9% of the index. Obviously, with such a heavy weighting in the index, IBM will need to be a decent performer for the Dow to do well going forward.

"And when you total up the exposure of IBM with the other tech stocks in the Dow - Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) - the total tech weighting in the Dow is 16%. Thus, tech stocks matter to the Dow, so it is diffcult to see the Dow sustaining a move upward without a nice rebound in the tech sector.

Continue reading What will move the Dow? A look inside the average

What will move the Dow? A look inside the average originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Foreclosures halted by two big banks

Foreclosures halted by two big banks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

In an era when banks can lose $10 billion in a single quarter, it is actually amazing that any financial institution can earn a profit. When we look forward to fixing the economic disaster left for the next president to fix, we may wonder why we give so much control of the world economy to people who take such enormous risks while earning more money than anyone else on the planet -- even as they leave the rest of us to pay for their mistakes. That situation must change.

It looks, though, like JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) will not be the guiltiest of the parties in this respect. Granted, JPMorgan did get $30 billion in protection from the U.S. to bail out Bear Stearns and it took $25 billion from the TARP. But at least it is still making a profit -- albeit a much smaller one than it did in the fourth quarter of 2007. Specifically, JPMorgan made $702 million in the fourth quarter or 7 cents a share -- down 76% from the $3 billion it earned in the same period last year. (However, without a $1.3 billion gain from closing a joint venture and "risk- management results," JPMorgan would have lost 28 cents a share.)

Continue reading Great News: JPMorgan Chase profit down 76%

Great News: JPMorgan Chase profit down 76% originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Why do BAC and JPM want to be Citigroup?

Why do BAC and JPM want to be Citigroup? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) Thomas Kelly said his firm has not disclosed what it did with the $25 billion in emergency bailout money it has received. In fact, JPMorgan Chase is declining to provide any such disclosure.

AP has reported that none of the 21 banks that received $1 billion or more from taxpayers is tracking, or at least willing to disclose how they are using the money. Let me be clear -- THIS STINKS TO THE HIGH HEAVENS!

What kind of deals did Treasury Secretary Paulson make with these favored financial institutions? The money would be very easy to track. Why wouldn't that be a part of the bargain?

Paulson obviously did not read Conservative bankers? Surely you jest!, but he should have. Of course, having former Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) CEO Paulson negotiate with his Wall Street buddies on behalf of the taxpayer is highly suspect. At a minimum we have the good 'ol boy network operating in full form.

The banks simply are avoiding what should be required scrutiny by pleading ignorance. I don't believe the money can't be tracked, or even traced now after the fact. What happened to the idea of more transparency? More cover up I fear!

The banks should be subject to full disclosure. The use of the funds should be subject to review. Government money should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Why all the secrecy?

PS: Personal emails I have been receiving and the initial comments indicate strong sentiment about this issue. I encourage those that care to forward this story to their elected officials and friends encouraging full disclosure -- as promised! Obama used the internet to help win the White House, lets use it to get someone to listen with an internet blast from all over the country!

Sheldon Liber is the CEO of a small private investment company and the principal for design and research at an architecture and planning firm. He writes the columns Chasing Value and Serious Money.

Banks not disclosing billions -- why all the secrecy, Paulson? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.