Topic: Growth Stocks

The Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, February 27, 2009

Article Excerpt

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO., $22.85, New York symbol JPM, has cut its quarterly dividend by 86.8%, to $0.05 a share from $0.38. The new annual rate of $0.20 yields 0.9%. The lower dividend should save Morgan $5 billion a year, and help it cope with higher loan losses brought on by the recession. The company earned $3.7 billion, or $0.84 a share, in 2008. It also received $25 billion from the U.S. government through the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Meanwhile, Morgan expects to report a profit for the first quarter of 2009. That’s despite $1 billion to $1.4 billion in projected losses from home-equity loans. Morgan made these loans to high-quality borrowers, but because home prices have fallen so much, they now owe more that the current market value of their homes. Morgan also expects more losses from its credit-card loans. However, by cutting jobs at Washington Mutual, which Morgan bought in September 2008, it should save $2 billion this…