AIG: Financial Winners & Losers

AIG shares rose after a report the government was planning to shed its stake in the insurer.

Author:: Robert Holmes
Publish date:: Apr 23, 2010 1:31 PM EDT

NEW YORK (

) --

American International Group

was among few winners of the financial sector Friday after a report the government was planning to shed its stake in the insurer.

AIG

shares rose nearly 4% after a

Bloomberg

report the Treasury Department is considering a two-year plan to convert $47 billion of preferred stock into common shares for sale on the open market, citing a person with knowledge of the discussions.

If AIG gives it approval to the plan and there is sufficient investor demand, the Treasury Department plan could be announced as early as the fourth quarter, the person told

Bloomberg

. Following the report, AIG shares were climbing 3.8% to $44.87.

Also on the winning side,

Dow

component

American Express

(AXP) - Get Report

rose 3.7% to $48.48 after the company late Thursday posted a first-quarter profit of 73 cents a share as revenue rose 11% to $6.6 billion. That beat the Thomson Reuters average estimate for earnings of 64 cents a share on revenue of $6.34 billion.

Fellow credit-card issuer

Capital One Financial

(COF) - Get Report

also notched a strong first-quarter performance as its provisions for loan losses fell sharply, and its shares were up 2.5% to $46.69.

PNC Financial Services

(PNC) - Get Report

also traded to the upside after FBR Capital Markets analyst Paul Miller reiterated his outperform rating on the stock and boosted his price target to $80 from $65, noting that the bank had "the cleanest beat to

earnings per shares of its peers."

Miller also added PNC Financial to FBR Capital's Top Picks list, displacing

Bank of America

(BAC) - Get Report

. PNC shares were up 1% to $69.47.

Elsewhere,

The Travelers Companies

(TRV) - Get Report

was trading in the red after the

Dow

component notched a first-quarter profit of $1.22 a share, which was below the Thomson Reuters average estimate of $1.36 a share.

Travelers

reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance of $5.20 to $5.55 a share, although that's below the consensus target of $5.73. Travelers shares were down 1.2% to $53.17.

Most major U.S. bank stocks were also trading lower, one day after

President Obama's pitch in New York for financial reform

Bank of America lost 0.8% to $18.39,

Goldman Sachs

(GS) - Get Report

was down 0.8% to $157.81,

Wells Fargo

(WFC) - Get Report

fell 0.7% to $33.36,

Morgan Stanley

(MS) - Get Report

slipped 0.5% to $31.75, and