Topic: Growth Stocks

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $42 – New York symbol JPM

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $42 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.8 billion; Market cap: $159.6 billion; Priceto- sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jpmorganchase .com) earned a record $5.7 billion in the three months ended September 30, 2012. That’s up 33.9% from $4.3 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 38.2%, to $1.40 from $1.02, on fewer shares outstanding.

More borrowers are paying back their loans on time. As a result, Morgan set aside $1.8 billion to cover bad loans in the quarter, down 25.8% from $2.4 billion a year earlier.

Low interest rates are also spurring demand for mortgages and credit cards. At the same time, the bank is seeing higher underwriting revenue as businesses issue more stocks and bonds. As a result, its overall revenue rose 5.8% in the quarter, to $25.1 billion from $23.8 billion.

Morgan has unwound most of a complex bondtrading strategy that has cost it around $5.8 billion, including $449 million in the latest quarter. The bank has since reorganized its securities-trading division to keep this problem from recurring.

These losses prompted Morgan to suspend its share buyback plan. However, it is still paying quarterly dividends of $0.30 a share, for an annualized yield of 2.9%. The stock trades at just 8.5 times the $4.97 a share that Morgan will probably earn in 2012.

J.P. Morgan Chase is a buy.

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