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  • Bank Bears Reawaken

    By Tony Daltorio - May 15, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, GS, JPM, MS

    Until late last week, the group that led the S&P 500 in gains for the year so far was the financial sector. This group of stocks was up nearly 15 percent for the year, nearly double the gain made by the broader market. But financial stocks fell sharply on Friday after JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) stated it had made “egregious mistakes” and incurred significant ($2 billion) mark-to-market losses in credit more »

  • Banks Firing on All Cylinders

    By Tim Brugger - April 19, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, JPM, MS, WFC

    Talk about a roll. What a week for banks and financial services companies. Morgan Stanley’s (NYSE: MS) recently announced better than expected earnings for Q1 is yet one more feather in the industry’s cap. The good news comes on the heels of Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) kicking things off earlier in the week – something they always like to do – in stellar fashion. Citigroup (NYSE: C) followed that up more »

  • Don’t Jump Yet, Comerica Investors

    By Tim Brugger - April 17, 2012 | Tickers: C, CMA, WFC

    It’s hard to imagine a 26% jump in earnings year-over-year could be anything but good news. But a closer look into Comerica’s (NYSE: CMA) recently announced Q1 financial results exposes a few less-than-desirable factoids for the commercial lender.

    On the upside of course is the jump in earnings – to $130 million from $103 million in Q1 of 2011. That equates to $0.66 a share vs. $0.57 more »

  • Sifting Through The Mess: Wells, JPMorgan and Citi

    By Tim Brugger - April 16, 2012 | Tickers: C, JPM, WFC

    Most investors are glad to be rid of last week, and good riddance. After Friday’s drop of another 1%+, the markets officially finished with the worst 5-day stretch so far this year – ugh. It got so bad even what appeared to be good news was brushed aside by anxious investors more concerned with global economic data than earnings. Not that there’s anything wrong with that mind you – that more »

  • American Express Making All the Right Moves

    By Tim Brugger - March 29, 2012 | Tickers: AXP, MA, V

    Based on American Express’ (NYSE: AXP) credit card business alone there’s a lot to like about one of the industry’s leaders. As multiple economic indicators align – along with the restrictions on debit card fees – credit is making a serious comeback. But that’s not all American Express has going for it right now. A conservative valuation, diverse product lines and some interesting industry scuttlebutt add up to an more »

  • Just when you Thought you’d Seen it All

    By Tim Brugger - March 15, 2012 | Tickers: GS, JPM, STT

    By now you’ve seen and/or heard about Greg Smith’s little tirade aimed at his former employer, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) in the op-ed section of the NY Times on Wednesday. The stock proceeded to tumble, opinions galore started flying and even now former and current executives from a number of firms are chipping in their two cents worth. Though there’s nothing quite like a little soap more »

  • Banks and Revenue: It’s Time to Change Expectations

    By Tim Brugger - February 29, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, JPM, WFC

    Despite what you may read, the banking industry is making a recovery. While profits for the industry were the highest they’ve been in 6 years according to the FDIC, you’re likely to hear analyst’s bemoan the lack of non-interest income, and even the slight drop in interest income industry-wide.

    So how does the industry post overall pofit gains at the same time it’s losing revenue? Stronger more »

  • Too Small to Fail? 3 Commercial Banks That Will Outperform Large-Caps

    By Robert Coleman - January 30, 2012 | Tickers: LKFN, MBVT, SBSI

    One of the most striking developments to come out of the 2008 financial crisis was the impressive performance of small-cap financials relative to their larger counterparts. With confidence in the financial system still lagging and the threat of a European economic breakdown looming, we can expect this trend to continue into the foreseeable future. Small banks typically benefit from their lack of exposure to high-risk assets, such as the subprime more »

  • The Ideal Stock for Value Investors

    By Justin Carley - January 27, 2012 | Tickers: BLK, EV, BEN, TROW

    What is an investor to do?  Should they buy cheap stocks, those with momentum, dividend plays, or contrarian names?  Well there is one stock that seems to fit all these criteria at the same time!  It is also a mid-cap, which gives it even more appeal.  It isn’t in my favorite industry, but that is what makes it a contrarian name.  Investors may want to give Eaton Vance (NYSE: EVmore »)

  • Hedge Funds Dig into Royal Bank of Canada

    By SumZero Research - January 23, 2012 | Tickers: RY

    Royal Bank of Canada (NYSE: RY)

    (The following write-up is an abbreviated pitch pulled from the SumZero community.)

    Recommended Action: Short
    Current Price: $52.50 Target Price: $36.00
    Source: Hedge Fund. New York, NY.

    Thesis:

    A short position in Royal Bank of Canada common equity has little downside risk, offers modest upside, and should be effective as a portfolio hedge.

    Royal Bank of Canada is one of the better more »

  • Why Missing Estimates Was Good For Huntington Bancshares Investors

    By Tim Brugger - January 19, 2012 | Tickers: FNB, FMER, HBAN

    It never fails; in the midst of earnings season there are always companies that perform exceptionally well, only to drop because they didn’t meet the vaunted “analyst estimates.” As an investor it would be easy to find this trend frustrating -- a stock dropping because profit increased, but just not enough to appease analysts. But for the savvy investor, these pose great opportunities to buy on the downside because invariably more »

  • Beyond Bank of America’s Numbers

    By Tim Brugger - January 19, 2012 | Tickers: BAC, C, JPM, WFC

    So Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) beat estimates, showed a healthy profit compared to Q4 of last year and the stock is up 4.5%; what’s not to love? A few things actually -- the manner in which the numbers were arrived at, the huge disparity between analysts’ interpretations of the results and a depressing trend in loan volume. That’s quite a mouthful, so let’s break this down more »

  • 12 Stocks to Buy and Forget for 2012

    By Kirk Spano - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: APA, AMAT, BRK-B, DISH, EXAS, GE, GMO, KSS, MRK, MON, BTU, SPWR

    If you hold one stock in your portfolio, you carry 100% of the risk of losing all of your money.  As you diversify your holdings from one company to two to three, you are gradually reducing your risk of losing everything. We all know this. What most investors don’t know is that a 12 stock portfolio of domestic companies cuts your company specific risk about 90%.  There are some pretty strong arguments for owning these dozen stocks in your portfolio in 2012.

  • Passively Achieving Your Goals With Options Part1

    By Nikhil Shamapant - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: AFL, HAS, KFN, PEP, PBR

    Part 1-Passive Strategies to Consistently Achieve Your Investment Goals

    Sounds like the perfect scam huh? That's why I added the word ‘passive.’ None of those penny stock pump and dump scammers advertise ‘passive investing.’ Why? No one looking for 1000% returns is at all passive about it. Actively managed portfolios tend to have higher goals for investment returns. Considering the fact that passively managed portfolios often don’t even more »

  • Predictions for 2012

    By Nikhil Shamapant - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: AFL, AAPL, ATPG, GLW, MHS, NBS, GAME

    Before the New Year begins, I figure I should make a few predictions for 2012, just for fun. This blog is copied from my CAPS blog post, but modified a little bit.

    Here I go:

    1. ATP Oil and Gas (NASDAQ: ATPG) will FINALLY get its footing. There will be a gigantic short squeeze and the stock will fly. I'm actually in the process of synthesizing 30 articles of more »

  • The Least Valuable Players: 5 Underpriced Stocks for 2012

    By Robert Coleman - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: ADM, AVX, BAC, C, GLW, JPM, LLL

    While the markets may have been cruel and unforgiving for many investors since 2008, the upshot is a golden opportunity for bargain hunters and value investors alike. The “Great Recession” is technically over, but by no means does that indicate that stocks have returned to their appropriate price levels, and anyone willing to put in the time and effort can sort through the securities haystack to find an underpriced needle more »

  • U.S. Bancorp May Be The Best of The Bunch

    By Tim Brugger - December 27, 2011 | Tickers: BAC, JPM, USB, WFC

    Finding a strong company in the banking industry isn’t as difficult as some analysts and folks on The Street would have you believe, it just takes some digging. As noted in recent articles, there are several large banking concerns that offer investors some nice upside, particularly when Europe gets straightened out, and an oh-by-the-way decent dividend while you wait.

    For larger institutions the options may not be quite as more »

  • 5 Technology IPOs Up Over 20 Percent from Their IPO Offer Price

    By Elizabeth Magill - December 26, 2011 | Tickers: ANGI, RATE, FIO, JIVE, LNKD

    In the overall scheme of things, the global tech industry experienced a heavy heart of sadness in 2011, with the passing of Apple's creative innovator and visionary Steve Jobs.

    But, thanks in part to Jobs, it was also a time of excitement when mobile computing exploded and popularity of the Apple's iPad 2, Amazon's Kindle Fire, and the many Google Android-based tablet devices.

    2011 was the year more »

  • Rates of Return and You

    By Mike Sandrik - December 25, 2011 | Tickers: BRK-B, BRK-A

    Let's say that you currently have $10,000 saved up and you want to retire in just five years.

    Let's also say that you can live frugally yet comfortably on $40,000 a year.

    What do you do with those two figures?  What kind of math do you need to do to figure out how much is enough and what kind of returns you need to get from more »

  • 10 High Yield MidCaps Going Ex-Dividend Next Week (December 26 - January 01)

    By Tom Roberts - December 25, 2011 | Tickers: NLY, CBL, CIM, EPR, LRY, MFA, PGH, PWE, PT, WIN

    Dividend stocks are wonderful because they increase my cash with regular payments. One major date in relation to the payment is the ex-dividend date. If you own a stock before this date, you get the next payment. This is very interesting because in the case of a high yield stock, I can earn at least one percent in cash for a short period of investing.

    I screened stocks with ex-dividend more »

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