Bank of America: Financial Winners & Losers
(Bank of America and other stock prices brought current in this update)
NEW YORK (
) --
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
touched a new 52-week high Thursday, making it one of the top performers of the financial sector, one day before opening its books on the first quarter.
Bank of America
rose as high as $19.83 earlier in the session before the bank was scheduled to post first-quarter results early Friday. Analysts expect that Bank of America will notch a quarterly profit of 9 cents a share on revenue of $27.89 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.
Since Bank of America last reported earnings on Jan. 20, the stock has rallied nearly 20%. However, some argue that
(JPM) - Get Report
first-quarter report on Wednesday may have raised the stakes for Bank of America and other U.S. banks when it comes to top-line growth and credit quality.
Lately, shares of Bank of America were up 11 cents, or 0.6%, to $19.51.
Meanwhile, Rochdale Securities analyst Dick Bove praised those same
first-quarter results from JPMorgan
, reiterating his buy rating on the stock. Bove upped his stock price target on JPMorgan shares to $55 from $50 while also increasing his 2010, 2011 and 2012 full-year earnings targets.
"JPMorgan is demonstrating strength in its two most important business segments," Bove wrote in a research note. "Loan losses seem to have peaked and trading activities accelerated. This is very positive. As other parts of the company begin to contribute the business will become stronger still."
However, Bove argues that the reason to buy JPMorgan is because of the bank's management team. "It knows its business and it applies itself appropriately," he wrote. "The record of the past few years indicates that this is not common in banking."
After rising more than 4% Wednesday, JPMorgan shares were up 0.8% to $48.10.
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
earlier broke through the critical $5 level, although shares were lately trading down.
Citigroup
last traded above the $5 mark in September 2009. Citigroup is due to report its first-quarter results on Monday. Analysts on average are expecting the company to breakeven on a per share basis with revenue projected at $20.77 billion.
Citigroup shares climbed as high as $5.07 but were slipping 0.5% to $4.91.
Online brokerages
E*Trade Financial
(ETFC) - Get Report
and
TD Ameritrade
(AMTD) - Get Report
were once again the subjects of takeover chatter following comments from TD Ameritrade's CEO.
gained 5.3% to $1.79 while
gained 1.4% to $20.47 after CEO Fred Tomcyzk told
Reuters
that the company is "open-minded" about using its cash for either an acquisition, share buyback or dividend payout.
Meanwhile, credit-card issuers were reporting monthly credit metrics.
Capital One Financial
(COF) - Get Report
in a regulatory filing said the annualized net charge-off rate, or debts the company expects it will not collect, rose to 10.87% last month from 10.19% in February. However, delinquencies of U.S. credit cards -- which act as an indicator of future losses -- fell to 5.3% from 5.51% in February.
American Express
(AXP) - Get Report
said in a separate filing that delinquencies on card payments fell to 3.3% in March from 3.6% in February. However, the annualized charge-off rate increased to 7.5% in March from 7.4% in February. The story was the same at JPMorgan, where charge-offs rose in March while the delinquency rate slid once again.
Elsewhere, Bank of America said charge-offs were down to 12.54% last month from 13.51% in February, while
Discover Financial
(DFS) - Get Report
saw its charge-off rate fall to 8.51% in March from 9.11% in February. Both Bank of America and Discover also saw delinquencies fall in March.
-- Written by Robert Holmes in Boston
.
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