Dividend.com: J.P. Morgan Collects Cash
09/26/08 - 03:00 PM EDT
Tom Reese and Paul Rubillo
KB Home Earnings Plunge, But Stock Hangs Tough
KB Home (KBH Quote - Cramer on KBH - Stock Picks) announced that its third-quarter loss quadrupled from a year-ago period, as revenue dropped by 56% amid sluggish sales and falling home prices. Revenue dipped to $681.6 million from $1.54 billion, as excessive inventories and less mortgage availability hurt sales across most markets. The scariest statistic reported was that half of the company's homebuyers backed out of their contracts in the quarter. Hopefully, these weren't speculators still sniffing out deals; that would only delay the inevitable housing bottom. We recently removed the stock from our "recommended" list, but we have to say it was not an easy decision. The stock has been resilient, and if today's early indication is correct, we may have to re-evaluate our decision. We do like to watch a stock's reaction to news, and the homebuilding stocks have been unusually resilient. We'll keep you posted. KB Home is not a recommended dividend stock at this time, holding a Dividend.com rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars. JP Morgan Raises Cash Quickly With $10 Billion Offering JP Morgan Chase(JPM Quote - Cramer on JPM - Stock Picks) has priced 246.9 million shares at $40.50 each -- for total proceeds of $10 billion -- as the bank moves ahead in its purchase of Washington Mutual's(WM Quote - Cramer on WM - Stock Picks) assets. At the completion of the deal, the price tag for JPMorgan Chase to acquire Washington Mutual is around $1.9 billion. The bank plans to write down Washington Mutual's loan portfolio by about $31 billion. JPMorgan Chase also acquired the once-mighty Bear Stearns(BSC Quote - Cramer on BSC - Stock Picks) -- which was also forced to sell -- back in March.
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