Posts Tagged ‘MS’

  • S&P 500 At Five-Month High
    , January 10th, 2012 at 10:01 am

    Thanks to a decent earnings report from Alcoa ($AA), the stock market is riding higher this morning. The S&P 500 just broke above 1,290 and is now at its highest point since August 1.

    Earnings season starts this week, and JPMorgan Chase ($JPM) will be our first Buy List stock to report. JPM reports earnings on Friday. This report will be closely watched by a lot of traders to get an idea of how well the banking sector did in Q4.

    Many of the large banks have seen their earnings estimates slashed over the past several weeks. Goldman Sachs ($GS), for example, was expected to earn $2.86 per share for the fourth quarter two months ago. Today that estimate is down to $1.69. Wall Street has cut Morgan Stanley’s ($MS) earnings estimate from a profit of 30 cents per share to a loss of 56 cents per share.

    JPMorgan has mostly side-stepped the downgrade party. Over the past two months, Wall Street has cut its Q4 forecast from 98 cents per share to 91 cents per share. That’s unpleasant but it’s not nearly as bad as some others.

    Again, we need to add some context. Even if JPM’s earnings came in on the low side, the stock is still going for about eight times what it will make in 2011. That’s pretty darn cheap. Plus, I hope to see the bank raise its dividend again.