JPMorgan Chase & Co Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (JPM)

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B- . The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth, increase in net income, revenue growth and attractive valuation levels. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Powered by its strong earnings growth of 54.44% and other important driving factors, this stock has surged by 29.79% over the past year, outperforming the rise in the S&P 500 Index during the same period. Regarding the stock's future course, although almost any stock can fall in a broad market decline, JPM should continue to move higher despite the fact that it has already enjoyed a very nice gain in the past year.
• JPMORGAN CHASE & CO reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. We feel that this trend should continue. During the past fiscal year, JPMORGAN CHASE & CO increased its bottom line by earning $5.19 versus $4.47 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($5.40 versus $5.19).
• The company, on the basis of net income growth from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly outperformed against the S&P 500 and exceeded that of the Diversified Financial Services industry average. The net income increased by 52.7% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from $3,728.00 million to $5,692.00 million.
• Despite its growing revenue, the company underperformed as compared with the industry average of 7.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 7.3%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., a financial holding company, provides various financial services worldwide. JPMorgan Chase has a market cap of $187.98 billion and is part of the financial sector and banking industry. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.4, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Shares are up 12.5% year to date as of the close of trading on Wednesday.

You can view the full JPMorgan Chase Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

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