Stock Market News & Stocks to Watch from StraightStocks » Banking

Small Cap Voice Featured Company: Xcellink International Inc. (XCEL.OB)

QualityStocks — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:54:14 +0000

Xcellink International Inc. is focused on developing advanced platform-independent customer-centric payment systems and methodologies. The company’s patented system has the ability to replace all credit, debit, charge and smart cards, providing all functions of order, warehousing, delivery and payment for all types of goods and services. Xcellink has the potential to become a major player in [...]

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Principal Financial, Sohu.com, Bank of America, Wal-Mart and Sears Holding Corp. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:10:10 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 20, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Principal Financial (PFG) as the Bull of the Day and Sohu.com (SOHU) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Bank of America (BAC), Wal-Mart (WMT) and Sears Holding Corp.(SHLD).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=5506

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We are upgrading our recommendation on the shares of Principal Financial (PFG) to Outperform. The company's third quarter operating earnings were much ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate, driven primarily by the sequential improvement in domestic as well as global equity markets.

We believe that Principal's strong franchise within the pension sector, which is aided by its diversification both in terms of products and geography, positions it well to benefit from the gradual recovery of the credit market. However, rising unemployment is reducing the number of participants in existing employee benefit plans.

Though we are concerned about higher delinquencies in its commercial mortgage portfolio, we expect the company to benefit from its decent capital level and cost containment measures.

Bear of the Day:

While Sohu.com’s (SOHU) third-quarter earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate and were in line with the company s own guidance, the outlook for the fourth quarter was far below expectation. The company's operating expenses have been steadily going up, which we fear could limit the growth in earnings.

Moreover, recent delays in game launches, weak ad spending, which is hurting the brand advertising revenue and intense competition pose a threat. Strength in its online games and portal business are expected to be the strongest drivers for growth beyond 2010.

Currently, we see limited upside for Sohu's revenue and earnings growth in the near term. We downgrade the stock to Underperform from our previous Neutral rating and set a six-month price target of $45.00.

Initial Jobless Claims Flat(-ish) – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:10:28 +0000

This week, initial claims for unemployment insurance (or jobless claims) were 505,000, the same as last week’s revised figure. However, the initial read was 502,000, so it is just as valid to see this as a 3,000 increase.

That, however, is not much in the overall scale of things. The four-week average fell by 6,500 to 514,000, and is now almost 145,000 below its mid-April peak.

The graph below (from http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/) shows the very significant progress that has been made in brining initial claims down, but also the long way we still have to go. The four-week average is still above the peaks of the two previous recessions. It is also still at a level that would indicate continuing net job losses. We probably have to see initial claims fall below the 400,000 level to indicate that, on balance, the economy is adding jobs.

On the positive side, there is no real evidence of a stalling in the decline, or the formation of a high plateau like we saw in those two downturns. So far, the decline looks more like the pre 1990 downturns, which partially assuage fears of a jobless recovery -- but it is too early to celebrate this. It would be better to plateau at a level around 400,000 like we did coming out of the 2001 recession than to be at a level of over 500,000.

The news on continuing claims was more mixed. Regular state claims for unemployment insurance, which run out after 26 weeks, declined by 39,000 to 5.611 million. If you are out of work for longer than that, then you are eligiable for extended claims, which are paid by the Federal Government as part of the Stimulus program. More than one third (35.6%) of all the unemployed currently have been out of work for more than six months and half have been out of work for at least 18.7 weeks.

There are two major extended benefit programs, and combined they are providing benefits to 4.113 million more workers -- an increase of 119,000 from last week (although the data for extended claims is one week behind the data for regular continuing claims, and two weeks behind initial claims).

Those extended claims do not last forever, but fortunately Congress passed a bill that was signed on November 6th that further extended claims for up to another 20 weeks (depending on the level of unemployment in that state). Unfortunately, we learn from this morning's New York Times that the bill was very poorly crafted in the fine print, and there is still the possibility of millions losing this economic lifeline:

“The record extension of emergency benefits that was signed into law on Nov. 6 was widely praised as a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Americans who had spent a year or more in fruitless searches for jobs.

"The new law provided up to 14 weeks of federally paid aid to unemployed people who had exhausted existing state and federal limits, benefits that already lasted up to 79 weeks in many states. And for the majority of states with particularly high unemployment, it added six more weeks of payments, bringing the potential total to 99 weeks.

"But many legislators, state aid officials and struggling workers apparently failed to read the fine print. The added federal benefits were built on a series of previous extensions that are slated to end on Dec. 31, unless Congress renews these programs. People who lost their jobs after July 1 of this year, for example, would receive no federal extensions once their customary six months of state aid ran out." (Click here to read more.)

The real number to focus on, then, for evaluating the level of continuing claims is not the regular state benefit numbers, but the combination of the regular state and the extended claims, which now stands at 9.774 million. While we have seen some real progress, if one were to just look at the regular continuing claims data -- which peaked at the end of June at 6.904 million -- that is mostly an illusion, since the extended claims have picked up that slack and then some, rising from 2.430 million, an increase of 1.733 million. Thus, combined continuing claims have actually risen by 440,000 since they “peaked" on just a regular continuing claims basis.

With the pace of hiring as slow as it is, this hole in the safety net will have to be repaired as soon as possible. With no income, and more than six job seekers for every available job, those people are going to be in a world of hurt. Most Americans have very little in the way of savings to fall back on, especially outside of IRA’s and 401k plans. Tapping those would expose people to a 10% penalty and it would be considered taxable income for them. Yet many of them will probably be forced to do so, even if unemployment insurance is extended to them.

It is not just for humanitarian reasons that benefits should be extended. Without an income, people will have to do their banking at the local food bank, not at Bank of America (BAC), and even the local food bank needs a bailout these days. People will be hard-pressed to shop at even the Salvation Army, let alone Wal-Mart (WMT).

Extending benefits is one of the most effective forms of economic stimulus there is. It is far more effective than extending lavish tax credits to move-up homebuyers with incomes up to five times the national median. Unfortunately, the unemployed to not have as effective a lobby as the used home dealers (aka Realtors).

Read the full analyst report on "BAC"
Read the full analyst report on "WMT"
Zacks Investment Research

The Strongest BRIC Country

Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:57:58 +0000

I have a trick question for you, especially if you're interested in emerging markets: Among the four BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — which offers the best stock market performance for American investors? Be careful how you answer, because appearances can ...

Bank of Montreal – Value – Zacks Rank Buy

Tracey Ryniec — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Bank of Montreal (BMO) is scheduled to report fourth quarter results on Nov 24. After posting 3 earnings surprises in a row, fourth quarter estimates are trending higher by a penny in the last week, rising to 90 cents.

Bank of Montreal, which provides personal, commercial and corporate banking services in North America, reported record revenues in the third quarter. The company saw strong growth in its personal and commercial banking segment. P&C Canada saw net income rise 13% compared with a year ago. Commercial banking saw revenue grow 17%.

Like other banks, Bank of Montreal also saw big gains from its trading segment, which saw net income rise 30% from the year ago period. Corporate banking also improved.

Weakness was still evident in the P&C U.S. segment where revenues fell 0.5% from a year ago. While there was improvement due to gains on the sale of mortgages, there were higher levels of impaired loans.

The company is still allotting for credit losses of $417 million, comprised of $357 million of specific provisions and $60 million in general allowance which is down from the year ago period which saw $484 million allotted, including $434 million in specific provisions.

Value Fundamentals

Bank of Montreal still has attractive value characteristics. It is trading with a forward P/E of 13.04 and has a price-to-book ratio of 1.53. It is rewarding shareholders with a hefty dividend, currently yielding 5.40%. The company is now a Zacks #1 Rank (buy) stock.

Read the Jul 2 article.

Update to Previous Value Zacks Rank Buy Stocks

RPM International Inc. (RPM) recently raised its dividend for the 36th consecutive year. Analysts expect earnings growth of 20.41% in fiscal 2010. Read the full article.

United Stationers Inc. (USTR) has surprised on the Zacks Consensus Estimate 4 consecutive quarters by an average of 28.24% as inventory reduction has boosted the bottom line. The company is trading with a forward P/E of 13.32. Read the full article.

NBTY Inc. (NTY) just posted record results for the fiscal fourth quarter as sales jumped 12%. The company is not only a value stock but analysts expect earnings to grow at 13.75% over the next 5 years. NBTY has a PEG ratio of just 0.90. Read the full article.

Healthspring, Inc. (HS) has surprised on estimates 3 out of the last 4 quarters by an average of 6.45%. The stock is cheap. It trades at just 6.7x forward earnings and has a PEG ratio of 0.67. Read the full article.

Zacks Investment Research

Prieur’s readings (November 16, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:46:44 +0000

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy. Please also add the links to any other worthwhile articles you would like to share to the comments section.

Gold bullion makes it eight in a row – what next?

Prieur du Plessis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:45:53 +0000

Gold hit a new peak after a drop in the US dollar to a 15-month trough, resulting in the precious metal recording an eight-day winning streak. What happens next?

NYSE Euronext Seeks China Listing – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:13:13 +0000

NYSE Euronext Inc. (NYX) is keen on gaining a listing in China as the country is gearing up to allow such listings.

NYSE Euronext is awaiting final confirmation from China's securities regulator, which is working on setting up a board in Shanghai for listing of firms across the globe. However, the regulator has not yet issued specific guidelines.

Numerous foreign companies, including the global banking giant HSBC Holdings Plc (HBC) and PC maker Lenovo Group (LHL) have expressed interest in listing on China's new board.

NYSE Euronext reported third quarter results on Nov 2. The company swung to a GAAP net income of $125 million or 44 cents per share from a GAAP net loss of $182 million in the prior quarter and a net income of $174 million or 66 cents in the year-ago period. Results included a one-time charge related to merger expenses and exit costs, the impact of the disposition of Hugin Group B.V., the sale of investments in BM&F Bovespa and a fair value adjustment to investment in BIDS Holdings L.P.

Excluding these charges, pro forma earnings per share came in at 53 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus forecast by more than 18%, or 8 cents. The upside was attributable to growth in the company’s core businesses, significant progress from new initiatives which offset lower trading volumes.

Read the full analyst report on "NYX"
Read the full analyst report on "HBC"
Zacks Investment Research

Avnet Tops Estimates – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:46:54 +0000

Avnet, Inc. (AVT) recently reported revenues of $4.36 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2010, down 3.1% from a year ago. Excluding the negative impact of foreign currency exchange rates, revenues declined 0.6%.

Management stated that the impact of global slowdown led to the year-over-year decline, but the business environment is improving.

On a segment basis, Electronics Marketing (EM) sales came in at $2.44 billion, down 9.8% year over year (down 8.0% when adjusted to exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates). The rate of revenue decline moderated in the reported quarter and management is encouraged by pace of bookings for this segment in recent months.

Technology Solutions (TS) generated sales of $1.92 billion, up 6.9% year over year (up 10.5% when adjusted to exclude the impact of changes in foreign currency exchange rates), driven by growth in Americas and Europe, Middle East and Asia (EMEA).

The company recently acquired a controlling interest in Vanda Group from Hutchinson Whampoa Limited in a strategic move to expand its presence and customer base across China. The transaction will provide the Technology Group with a strong foothold in the banking and financial sector, where Vanda's flagship product, VisionBanking Suite, is a well-known solution.

Operating margin came in at 2.46%, compared to 2.26% in the previous quarter. Net income declined 33.9% year over year to $67.2 million. Earnings per share (EPS) of 44 cents easily beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 34 cents.

During the reported quarter, Avnet generated $6.2 million of cash flow from operations. As a result, Avnet ended the quarter with $987 million of cash and cash equivalents and net debt (total debt less cash and cash equivalents) of $20 million.

Going forward, management expects revenues between $4.10 billion and $4.70 billion in the second quarter of fiscal 2010. Earnings per Share (EPS) are expected between 52 cents and 60 cents.

Earlier, rival Arrow Electronics (ARW) reported a small profit and provided a disappointing forecast. Profit narrowed significantly at Arrow due to restructuring charges. The company provided a conservative guidance for the fourth quarter, due to limited visibility.

Though the early signs of recovery improve business sentiments, IT spending is yet to pick up. The recovery is expected to be slow and steady and visibility is not clear - at least in the near-term. Orders are yet to return to normal levels.

Most of the growth for the company is coming from low margin Asian region.

We would like to be on sidelines before becoming positive on Avnet, Inc.

Based in Phoenix, Avnet is one of the largest distributors of electronic components, computer products and embedded technology serving customers in more than 70 countries worldwide.

Read the full analyst report on "AVT"
Read the full analyst report on "ARW"
Zacks Investment Research

An interview with Charlie Gasparino

Prieur du Plessis — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:46:25 +0000

Dan Holland has just interviewed Wall Street chronicler Charlie Gasparino's. Excerpts from the interview are published in this post.

A Diversified Portfolio Can Grow In Good Times And In Bad

Martha Vasquez — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:29:53 +0000

Nobody has ever said that investing in the stock market is a sure thing, but there are some things that you can do that will better ensure your success. One of those things is to make sure that you have a diversified portafolio that will spread out your money and protect you. A lot of beginner investors fail to do this and as one company goes, so goes their entire portfolio.

DrStockPick.com Stock Report! 10/29/09, SIVC, PWRM, PCG, ADVS, GILT, ZEUS

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:28:29 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Thursday October 29, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! ************************************************************** Power3 Medical Products, Inc. (OTCBB: PWRM), a leader in neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers and diagnostic tests, announces further international recognition of validity as the company’s President and CSO, Dr. Ira Goldknopf, will deliver an [...]

Prieur’s readings (October 29, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:48:25 +0000

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy. Please post other interesting links in the comments section.

TAXS, SCHW, PSFT, DISH, PWRM, MMM, CSRH, WFC, CVAT, JPM, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:36:08 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 27, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! TAXS, SCHW, PSFT, DISH, PWRM, MMM, CSRH, WFC, CVAT, JPM, AQNM ************************************************************** TAXS, TaxMasters Inc., TAXS.OB TAXS‘ commitment to helping taxpayers in the United States regain compliance with The Internal Revenue Service IRS. TAXS finalized plans this week to take advantage of the [...]

Prieur’s readings (October 27, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:20:08 +0000

This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy. Please also let me know what you have been reading.

Prieur’s readings (October 25, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:49:23 +0000

Wise Words from Across the Pond – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:41:50 +0000

Meryn King, the British counterpart to U.S. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, had this to say in a speech yesterday:

“The United Kingdom faces two fundamental long-run challenges. First, to rebalance the economy, with more resources allocated to business investment and net exports and fewer to consumption.

"That is consistent with the need – now widely accepted – to eliminate the large structural fiscal deficit and to raise the national saving rate. It is part of a need for a wider rebalancing of domestic demand in the world economy away from those countries that borrowed and ran current account deficits towards those that lent and ran surpluses."

Everything he has to say about the UK is true in spades for the US. The US. is more dependent on consumption than is the UK and perpetually runs trade (current account) deficits. We need for the US to be consuming less and investing more in productive capacity, and then exporting more than we import.

It is the current account deficit, not the budget deficit, that leads us to be deeply indebted to the Chinese and OPEC. In any sort of rational world, it would be the large, developed, mature economies that would be exporting capital to emerging markets, not the other way around.

"Second, both the structure and regulation of banking in the UK need reform. Banks increased both the size and leverage of their balance sheets to levels that threatened stability of the system as a whole. They remain extraordinarily dependent on the public sector for support. That was necessary in the immediate crisis, but is not sustainable in the medium term."

Any bank that is "too big to fail" should not be allowed to operate as a casino. Yes, risk-taking activity is vital to the growth and vibrancy of the economy, but it should not be undertaken by banks that are backstopped by the taxpayer.

The reforms that the Obama Administration have put forth are a good first step, but only a first step. Unfortunately, as most of the nation has been focused on the Health Care battle, the lobbyists for the banks have already swooped in and begun to undermine the reforms. Yes, we might get something call financial regulatory reform, but it will not be anywhere near strong enough to prevent a recurrence of last year's events.

Requiring higher capital standards for the Tier One financial institutions, those that are "too big to fail," might do the trick, but to offset the much lower cost of capital that comes with that implicit federal guarantee of their debt, the capital requirements will have to be very high -- higher than will be politically sustainable.

A far better solution would be to declare that a bank that is "too big to fail" is "too big to exist." We need to bring back something that looks like Glass-Stiegel, the law that stabilized the banking system and prevented any real problems like these for almost half a century.

“Why were banks willing to take risks that proved so damaging both to themselves and the rest of the economy? One of the key reasons – mentioned by market participants in conversations before the crisis hit – is that the incentives to manage risk and to increase leverage were distorted by the implicit support or guarantee provided by government to creditors of banks that were seen as 'too important to fail.'

"Such banks could raise funding more cheaply and expand faster than other institutions. They had less incentive than others to guard against tail risk. Banks and their creditors knew that if they were sufficiently important to the economy or the rest of the financial system, and things went wrong, the government would always stand behind them. And they were right."

We are setting up the biggest case of moral hazard ever. If a pay-off from a bet is structured so that if things go right, you make a fortune, and if things go wrong you just break even, people will start to take crazy risks. That cannot be allowed to happen again with taxpayers being the ones who cover the bets if things go the wrong way.

Just a year after the world stood on the brink of disaster, the Street is back to handing out record bonuses. At Goldman Sachs (GS) alone, a firm with 25,000 employees world wide, the bonus pool is reportedly $23 billion.

That is equivalent to 0.16% of GDP…for the bonus pool of one firm! A firm that has benefited greatly from Federal largess over the last year.

Yes, Goldman has had a very profitable year, mostly due to their prop desk. In other words, they have done well by their risk-taking with the capital of the firm. That is all well and good, but it is not an activity that should be backstopped by the government.

Unfortunately, in the heat of the crisis, and because there was, in many cases nowhere else to turn, we moved in exactly the wrong direction, with the "too big to fail" banks becoming substantially larger -- J.P. Morgan (JPM) gobbled up Bear Stearns and WaMu, Wells Fargo (WFC) ate Wachovia, and Bank of America (BAC) swallowed Merrill Lynch.
Read the full analyst report on "GS"
Read the full analyst report on "JPM"
Read the full analyst report on "WFC"
Read the full analyst report on "BAC"
Zacks Investment Research

BAC, PSFT, PWRM, SO, CSRH, NYX, CVAT, ATVI, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:03:03 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 20, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! BAC, PSFT, PWRM, SO, CSRH, NYX, CVAT, ATVI, AQNM ************************************************************** BAC, Bank of America Corporation BAC is one of the world’s largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset [...]

Avnet Expands in China – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:35:40 +0000

Avnet, Inc. (AVT) recently announced that it has acquired a controlling interest in Vanda Group from Hutchinson Whampoa Limited in a strategic move to expand its presence and customer base across China. Vanda Group will operate as an Avnet company while maintaining its current operations, management team and the Vanda brand.

Vanda Group is a leading IT solutions and services provider covering major cities in China, Hong Kong and Macau, and has been around 27 years. Vanda Group provides systems integration services and solutions incorporating hardware and software from major suppliers including IBM (IBM), Lenovo, Cisco (CSCO), Sun (JAVA), Nokia (NOK) and Oracle (ORCL). The company serves clients from diverse industries including major banks, financial institutions, telecommunications companies, utilities and government departments. Vanda Group generated revenues of approximately $50 million in 2008 and employs more than 600 people.

The transaction will also provide the Technology Group at Avnet with a strong foothold in the banking and financial sector, where Vanda’s flagship product, VisionBanking Suite, is a well-known solution.

Avnet earlier entered into a distribution agreement with India-based MosChip Semiconductor Technology Ltd with a view to expand arms in the emerging markets of Asia. MosChip provides high performance multimedia and connectivity solutions for consumer, industrial and computing applications. Avnet is one of the world’s largest distributors of electronic components and computer products.

With the economy showing signs of improvement, both Avnet and its rival Arrow Electronics (ARW) are on the lookout for strategic fits to their business models. Management had earlier stated that growth in Asia continues to offset sales decline in other regions.

Earlier, Avnet reported weak fourth-quarter results, as its top line remained challenged by adverse business conditions amid the global economic slowdown. The company’s organic growth continues to be lackluster and it continues to expand only through acquisitions.
Read the full analyst report on "AVT"
Read the full analyst report on "IBM"
Read the full analyst report on "CSCO"
Read the full analyst report on "JAVA"
Read the full analyst report on "NOK"
Read the full analyst report on "ORCL"
Read the full analyst report on "ARW"
Zacks Investment Research

People’s United Reports In-Line – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:12:49 +0000

People's United Financial Inc.’s (PBCT) third quarter earnings of 8 cents per share were in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. While quarterly results benefited from growth in core loan portfolios and deposits, the company’s credit quality continued to deteriorate. It has reported significant increase in loan loss provisions in the quarter.

People's United reported net income of $26.8 million or 8 cents per share for the quarter, compared to $25.3 million or 8 cents per share in the prior quarter and $46.0 million or 14 cents per share a year earlier.

Net interest income was $145.3 million, up 3% sequentially but down 9% year-over-year. Net interest margin was up 7 basis points (bps) sequentially but down 52 bps year-over-year to 3.19%. The sequential increase in the net interest margin was primarily driven by a reduction in the costs of deposits.

Non-interest income decreased 6% sequentially but was up 8% year-over-year to $80.2 million. Non-interest expense was down 6% sequentially but increased 4% year-over-year to $165.1 million.

Provision for loan losses was more than tripled from the prior-year quarter to $21.5 million and increased by $7.5 million from the prior quarter.

Net loan charge-offs jumped to $16.0 million in the quarter from $6.0 million in the prior quarter and $4.0 million in the year-ago quarter and included $6.1 million related to one non-performing shared national credit. Annualized net loan charge-offs increased 28 bps sequentially and 33 bps year-over to 0.44% of average loans. The allowance for loan losses increased $5.5 million from the prior quarter to $172.5 million at Sept. 30, 2009.

Non-performing assets also continued to increase in the quarter. These totaled $192.7 million at Sept. 30, 2009, reflecting increase of $10.7 million sequentially and $101.3 million year-over-year. Non-performing assets increased 10 bps sequentially to 1.35% of total loans.

Return on average tangible assets was 0.55% and return on average tangible stockholders' equity was 3.0%, compared to 0.53% and 2.8%, respectively, in the prior quarter. Tangible equity ratio stood at 18.6% at Sept. 30, 2009.

With assets of $21 billion, People's United Financial offers commercial banking, retail and small business banking, and wealth management services through a network of nearly 300 branches in Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts and New York.

Although People's United is currently experiencing credit quality deterioration, the company is eying strategic acquisitions for expansion. Along with this, its cost expense management initiatives bode well going forward. Hence, we currently have a Neutral recommendation on this stock.
Read the full analyst report on "PBCT"
Zacks Investment Research

PWRM, BAC, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:04:58 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 16, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! PWRM, BAC, AQNM ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 Medical Products Inc, PWRM.OB Power3 Medical Products, Inc. is a leading bio-medical company engaged in the commercialization of neurodegenerative disease and cancer biomarkers, pathways, and mechanisms of diseases through the development of diagnostic tests [...]

Stock Market News for October 16, 2009 – Market News

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:06:13 +0000

U.S. stocks stayed above the threshold reached yesterday as a late-session buying helped offset weakness in banking and technology shares. Financials dragged on stocks through the early afternoon even as Goldman Sachs and Citigroup reported better-than-expected profit reports. However, the final fifteen minutes witnessed much of the activity as higher oil prices sent energy stocks higher and, in turn, helped the broader market.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 10,000 level for the second-successive day, edging up 47 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 index edged up 4 points, or 0.4% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite ended the day virtually flat. The gains in the Dow average were led by Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) whose shares jumped 2.9%. The Windows 7 is slated for release on October 22.

Among energy stocks, Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM) shares climbed 1.6% and 1.5%, respectively, as crude prices jumped to their highest levels of the year. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy said gasoline stockpiles fell 5.2 million barrels per day last week, well below expectations of 700,000 decline.

Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) rose 1.7% after it completed its acquisition of Wyeth.

Nevertheless, weakness in financial sector shares, off 0.6%, hurt sentiment even as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) reported estimate-topping numbers. Citigroup's (NYSE:C) strong trading returns were overcome by increasing consumer loan losses. Citi's (NYSE:C) CEO Vikram Pandit warned, "US consumer credit remains the number one issue affecting our near-term results." JP Morgan (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon warned that level of loan losses are likely to remain high.

Tech shares also failed to advance, even as IBM (NYSE:IBM) raised its earnings outlook and reported numbers that were above Street projections. Advanced Micro Devices' (NYSE:AMD) narrower-than-expected loss and the return of its core chip-making operations to profitability failed to lift sentiments either. However, Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) better-than-expected results were helped by return to sequential quarterly growth, a 5% increase in average cost-per-clicks over the second quarter, and a positive impact from the declining dollar. Shares in Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) rose 3.6% in after-hours trading as CEO Eric Schmidt noted, "While there are a lot of uncertainties about the pace of [the] economic recovery, we believe the worst of the recession is behind us and now feel confident about investing heavily in our future."

Today's expected results include a number of significant results from companies such as Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Genuine Parts (NYSE:GPC), General Electric (NYSE:GE), and Mattel (NYSE:MAT). Also reporting are: Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) and First Horizon National (NYSE:FHN).

Zacks Investment Research

BA, PWRM, PG, CSRH, MA, CVAT, SCHW, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:16:33 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 15, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! BA, PWRM, PG, CSRH, MA, CVAT, SCHW, AQNM, NOK ************************************************************** BA, Boeing Co. BA, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, development, manufacture, sale, and support of commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites, missile defense, human space flight, and launch [...]

Citi Reports in Line; Results Hurt – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:35:00 +0000

Citigroup's (C) third quarter 2009 loss from continuing operations of 23 cents per share was in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. This compares favorably with a net loss of 72 cents in the prior-year quarter. Results for the quarter included $8 billion in net credit losses and an $802 million in net loan loss reserve build.

GAAP net income in the third quarter of 2009 was $101 million, compared to a net loss of $2.8 billion in the prior-year quarter. On a per share basis, however, the company reported a GAAP net loss of 27 cents per share, based on an average 12.1 billion shares outstanding. This compares to a net loss of 61 cents in the prior-year quarter.

Results for the quarter were impacted by an incremental net loss of 18 cents per share related to the completion of Citi’s previously announced exchange offers. However, these have also resulted in an after-tax gain of $851 million. The loss for the quarter also reflects preferred stock dividends, which reduced income available to common shareholders by $288 million, or 2 cents per share.

Total revenue decreased 32% sequentially but increased 25% year-over-year to $20.4 billion. The revenue decreased sequentially as the prior quarter revenue had included an $11.1 billion gain from the Smith Barney transaction.

Net interest income for the quarter was down 6% sequentially and 10% year-over-year to $12.0 million, whereas net interest margin (NIM) declined 31 basis points (bps) sequentially and 22 bps year-over-year to 2.93%. Total non-interest income decreased 51% sequentially but increased 194% year-over-year to $8.4 billion.

Operating expenses decreased 2% sequentially and 16% year-over-year to $11.8 billion, primarily due to ongoing re-engineering efforts and expense controls.

The allowance for loan losses increased to $36.4 billion, or 5.9% of total loans. Net credit losses remained elevated at $8.0 billion, but were down from $8.4 billion in the prior quarter.

Deposits were $833 billion, up 3% from $805 billion in the prior quarter. Sequential growth in deposit was strong in both Transaction Services and Regional Consumer Banking.

Credit quality metrics continued to deteriorate during the quarter. Total non-accrual assets as on Sept. 30, 2009, increased to $28.1 billion (4.56% of total assets) compared to $23.6 billion (3.64%) as on June 30, 2009. Allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total loans increased to 5.85%, compared to 5.60% as on June 30, 2009. However, provisions for credit losses, claims, and benefits decreased 28.0% sequentially to $9.1 billion, mainly due to lower loan losses.

Tangible Common Equity and Tier 1 Common ratios improved during the quarter to 10.3% and 9.1%, respectively. The improvement of capital ratios was due to the completion of exchange offers, which resulted in an additional $64 billion of Tier 1 Common and $60 billion of Tangible Common Equity. Tier 1 Capital remained stable at 12.7%.

During the quarter, Return on Common Equity (ROE) deteriorated significantly to negative 12.2% compared to a positive return of 14.8% in the prior quarter. Citigroup’s book value at the end of the quarter also deteriorated to $6.15 per share, compared to $14.16 at the end of the prior quarter and $18.10 at the end of the prior-year quarter.

Citicorp generated revenues of $13.0 billion in the reported quarter, down 13% sequentially and 19% year-over-year. The decline was attributable to the negative impact of credit value adjustments in securities and banking, and securitizations in North America branded cards. The segment reported a net income from continuing operations of $2.3 billion, compared to $3.1 billion in the prior quarter and $3.6 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Citi Holdings recorded revenues of $6.7 billion, compared to $15.8 billion in the prior quarter and $704 million in the prior-year quarter. The current quarter’s results include a $320 million pre-tax gain on the sale of Citigroup’s managed futures business to the Smith Barney JV. The segment reported a net loss from continuing operations of $1.8 billion compared to a net income of $1.4 billion in the prior quarter and net loss of $6.9 billion in the prior-year quarter.

Citigroup, once the largest U.S. bank by assets, fell behind last year after a series of acquisitions by rivals. Citi has been among the banks hardest hit by the credit crisis and recession. The bank has been severely hurt by billions in losses and write-downs of problem loans and toxic assets.  The U.S. government has injected $45 billion in bailout funds into the bank, $25 billion of which was converted to a 34% equity ownership stake and guarantees to protect against losses on more than $300 billion in risky assets. Top-level management at the company is formulating plans to downsize the government's stake in the company through a multibillion-dollar stock offering.

Also, there have been major management changes in the recent months, adding new directors and replacing key executives.

We expect Citigroup to incur higher credit losses in the upcoming quarters as its restructuring process continues. Moreover, the obscurity around the valuation of Citi Holdings will remain a drag on the shares in the near term. As such, we are maintaining our Neutral recommendation on the shares of Citigroup.
Read the full analyst report on "C"
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Prieur’s readings (October 14, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:00:38 +0000

This post provides links to a number of thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find of interest. Please also add the links to any other worthwhile articles you would like to share to the comments section.

JNPR, PWRM, FISV, CSRH, CSCO, CVAT, HON, AQNM, HAL, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:53:03 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 13, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! JNPR, PWRM, FISV, CSRH, CSCO, CVAT, HON, AQNM, HAL ************************************************************** JNPR, Juniper Networks, Inc. JNPR is the leader in high-performance networking. JNPR offers a high-performance network infrastructure that creates a responsive and trusted environment for accelerating the deployment of services and applications [...]

CSRH.OB Consorteum Holdings Inc. has Identified Several new key Business Opportunities

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:20:21 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Tuesday October 13, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc.’s will build on its extensive expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry in North America, Europe and Internationally. By identifying new technologies and trends in the changing global marketplace, Consorteum Holdings Inc. [...]

AAPL, PWRM, GOOG, CSRH, C, CVAT, INTC, AQNM, IBM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:27:47 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 12, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! AAPL, PWRM, GOOG, CSRH, C, CVAT, INTC, AQNM, IBM ************************************************************** AAPL, Apple Inc. and GOOG, Google Inc. AAPL and its wholly owned subsidiaries design, manufacture, and market personal computers, portable digital music players, and mobile communication devices, and sell [...]

JNJ, PWRM, HERO, CSRH, SCHW, CVAT, BX, AQNM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:20:21 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Monday October 12, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! JNJ, PWRM, HERO, CSRH, SCHW, CVAT, BX, AQNM ************************************************************** JNJ, Johnson & Johnson JNJ engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of various products in the health care field worldwide. JNJ reports earnings for the third quarter Tuesday morning. ************************************************************** PWRM, Power 3 [...]

Citigroup Faces Penalty – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:45:45 +0000

Citigroup Inc. (C) is likely to pay $600,000 in fines to settle a claim by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) over derivatives transactions that helped foreign clients avoid taxes on dividends.

The regulator accused the bank of incompetently supervising transactions that helped international customers avoid U.S. taxes on stock dividends.

Citigroup Global Markets failed to supervise the system of trades and swap contracts and inadequately monitored certain communications. In accordance with the system, an overseas client sold U.S. shares to Citigroup before dividends were paid. However, Citi later received an amount similar to the dividend through a derivative contract.

Citigroup initially did not have written procedures to inspect the system. Though, later on the bank adopted a policy but employees failed to follow it consistently.

Major governments around the world are taking stringent actions to impede tax evasions in order to fix the widening budget gaps fueled by economic weakness. In 2008, a U.S Senate inquiry found that a number of Wall Street firms invented imaginary derivatives and stock loan deals to help clients including international hedge funds avoid huge amount of taxes. Citigroup also voluntarily disclosed such deals and paid $24 million in taxes for 2003 through 2005.

In early 2009, Swiss banking giant UBS AG (UBS) agreed to pay $780 million to settle criminal claims that it helped U.S. citizens evade taxes.

Citigroup will release its third quarter 2009 earnings on Oct 15, 2009 with a conference call scheduled later in the day to discuss its results. Ahead of its results, we maintain our Neutral recommendation on the stock.
Read the full analyst report on "C"
Read the full analyst report on "UBS"
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CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. has Identified Several new key Business Opportunities

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:54:43 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Monday October 12, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc.’s will build on its extensive expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry in North America, Europe and Internationally. By identifying new technologies and trends in the changing global marketplace, Consorteum Holdings Inc. [...]

Prieur’s readings (October 11, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:39:27 +0000

NCR Corp. CFO to Resign – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:33:08 +0000

NCR Corporation (NCR) has declared that its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Anthony Massetti will resign on October 23, the day after the company’s third-quarter earnings release. Massetti will take up a new assignment with telecommunications major Avaya Inc. Robert Fishman, corporate controller, will take the responsibility as interim CFO until NCR finds a replacement for the CFO position.

During May 2007 to January 2008, Fishman had been interim CFO at NCR and joined the company way back in 1993. He looked after the finance function of the company at various positions. This recent news had a negative impact on the share price of the company, which took a hit on Thursday, a day after NCR announced the news. NCR’s last closing price on Oct. 8th was $11.82, down around 12.5% from the previous day's close.

NCR is moving its corporate headquarters to Georgia from Ohio, cutting expenses and working on growing its retail business through DVD and video game kiosks. This apart, NCR was recently in the news, since it declared that the company has secured the largest order of automated teller machines (ATMs) from The State Bank of India (SBI). The top Indian bank has entered into an agreement to purchase around 3,800 ATM machines from NCR and also entered into a seven-year service contract with the company.

Although the resignation of an able leader such as Massetti may lead to some short-term jitters in the company’s share price, the underlying business fundamentals of the company cannot be ignored. This contract win with State Bank of India proves that NCR has retained its leadership position in the global ATM market. Although the banking and financial services sector across the world is going through the doldrums, which has been a restriction on spending, we believe that with gradual economic revival, this segment will generate substantial revenue and win new customers for the company.
Read the full analyst report on "NCR"
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NCR Wins Biggest ATM Deal – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:57:52 +0000

NCR Corp. (NCR) has secured the biggest order of automated teller machines (ATMs) in India. The State Bank of India (SBI) has entered into an agreement to purchase around 3,800 ATM machines from NCR. The leading bank of India also signed a seven year service contract with the company.

The bank is already using 10,000 NCR ATMs and this repeat order reinforces the fact that SBI is satisfied with the quality and service of NCR. Under this new agreement, NCR will be instrumental in ATM deployment, site implementation service, maintenance and site implementation service. NCR will be supplying the DVSS (Digital Video Surveillance Systems) along with the ATMs to prevent fraudulent activities. The financial terms of the deal is not yet disclosed by the company.

This apart, the company is rolling out new products at regular intervals and resolving operational issues of its customers around the world. Recently, NCR launched advanced point-of-sale solution for its customers. Again a few weeks back, NCR Advanced Store point-of-sale (POS) solution, version 5.4 achieved the “Payment Application Data Security Standard" (PA-DSS) version 1.2. of the “Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council" (PCI SSC). The (PA-DSS) standards have been deployed to protect credit card information of consumers against security threats.

NCR also revealed that the company has signed a deal with U.S. Airways, whereby the later will deploy NCR TouchPort 80, a self-service kiosk that supports passenger check-in at outdoor locations. Although the company continues to roll out different products and services, but it is a pioneer in manufacturing ATMs.

Apart from SBI, the other big Indian customer of NCR ATM is HDFC Bank (HDB), which is also using large number of ATM machines from the company. This contract win proves that, NCR continues to maintain its leadership position in the Indian as well as global ATM market. Although the banking and financial services sector across the globe is going through doldrums and restricts their spending, we believe with gradual economic revival this segment will generate substantial revenues and win new customers for the company.

Read the full analyst report on "NCR"
Read the full analyst report on "HDB"
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MBRX, PWRM, CBS, CSRH, CVC, CVAT, NOC, AQNM, UTX, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:38:06 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 9, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! MBRX, PWRM, CBS, CSRH, CVC, CVAT, NOC, AQNM, UTX ************************************************************** MBRX, Metabasis Therapeutics Inc. MBRX, a biopharmaceutical company, engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of novel drugs targeting the liver and liver pathways. On September 15, 2009, MBRX received a letter [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. has Identified Several new key Business Opportunities

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:52:05 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Friday October 9, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc.’s will build on its extensive expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry in North America, Europe and Internationally. By identifying new technologies and trends in the changing global marketplace, Consorteum Holdings Inc. [...]

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: International Business Machines, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:00:31 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 9, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: International Business Machines (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT), Oracle (ORCL), Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:

IBM Faces Antitrust Hurdle

The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) is investigating the allegations against IBM for its conduct in the Mainframe business. Some smaller companies in the banking, government and health care sector develop technologies that would allow the software to run on cheaper hardware. Thus, to freeze competition, IBM has combined its mainframe operating systems with hardware and acquired startup Platform Solutions Inc.

Moreover, it has been alleged that IBM has curbed license of its mainframe operating systems to users of Hercules, which is an open-source software that allows IBM's mainframe operating systems to run on Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) devices.

Last year, IBM acquired Platform Solutions, which complained to European regulators about IBM's restriction on the usage of its mainframe operating software on non-IBM computers.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

Zacks "Profit from the Pros" e-mail newsletter provides highlights of the latest analysis from Zacks Equity Research. Subscribe to this free newsletter today: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5517

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IBM Faces Antitrust Hurdle – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:35:00 +0000

International Business Machines (IBM) has been charged by the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a non-profit trade group organized by IBM’s rivals Microsoft (MSFT) and Oracle (ORCL). The allegation is directed at its Mainframe computer business, which is taking revenues and pressurizing profits of its competitors by withdrawing the license access to customers using non-IBM hardware operating systems.

The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) is investigating the allegations against IBM for its conduct in the Mainframe business. Some smaller companies in the banking, government and health care sector develop technologies that would allow the software to run on cheaper hardware. Thus, to freeze competition, IBM has combined its mainframe operating systems with hardware and acquired startup Platform Solutions Inc.

Moreover, it has been alleged that IBM has curbed license of its mainframe operating systems to users of Hercules, which is an open-source software that allows IBM's mainframe operating systems to run on Intel (INTC) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) devices.

Last year, IBM acquired Platform Solutions, which complained to European regulators about IBM's restriction on the usage of its mainframe operating software on non-IBM computers.

The probe by the Justice Department will also open up antitrust violations by large telecom companies such as AT&T (T) and Verizon Communications (VZ) who use their dominant position in the market to win exclusive deals with handset makers and crush smaller firms.

The first quarter of 2009 was the fifth consecutive quarter for IBM’s double-digit MIPS growth on mainframe servers as well as double-digit revenue growth in the high-end of POWER servers, as 62 enterprise customers migrated to POWER systems.

Moreover, the company’s Systems and Technology segment has been growing and is expected to get a boost from new mainframe contracts extending its leadership in energy efficiency, security and resilience.

IBM said that it will cooperate with any DOJ inquiries. Thus IBM may have to worry about the current antitrust hurdle. But we note that the company has been under antitrust scrutiny many times in the past and the government ultimately dropped the case on each occasion after a long clash.

However, the effects of the scrutiny cannot be ignored.
Read the full analyst report on "IBM"
Read the full analyst report on "MSFT"
Read the full analyst report on "ORCL"
Read the full analyst report on "INTC"
Read the full analyst report on "AMD"
Read the full analyst report on "T"
Read the full analyst report on "VZ"
Zacks Investment Research

NNAN, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, COP, CVAT, JWN, AQNM, NVDA, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:17:26 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 8, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! NNAN, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, COP, CVAT, JWN, AQNM, NVDA ************************************************************** NNAN, NaturalNano Inc., NNAN.OB NNAN is a materials science company focused on developing and commercializing advanced nanocomposites. Series of Cornell’s feasibility studies using NNAN’s Halloysite Natural Tubes has been very successful. The [...]

UBS Boosts Energy Lending Biz – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:45:53 +0000

As part of strengthening its Global Energy banking practice UBS Investment Bank, a subsidiary of UBS AG (UBS), is hiring 18 Investment bankers who will focus on energy lending. Based in Dallas , this new team will have Darrell Holley serving as Managing Director and Global Head of energy lending.

The new team has significant expertise in energy lending and will complement UBS’s existing Energy Banking team in Houston and New York .

Holley will report to Stephen Trauber, Global Head of Energy banking at UBS. Previously, Holley was with Fortis Bank in Dallas , where he was Global Head of Oil and Gas banking.

Over the last month, UBS added more than a dozen of Managing Directors to its Investment Banking Department. The focus on the energy lending business is a strategic move as a result of the energy sector’s resiliency during the economic turmoil. Management also expects this sector to be most active in mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings with the recovery of the economy.

Recently, UBS announced its intention to close its relationship with the Swiss government by purchasing its toxic assets back from the bad bank deal and anticipated to turnaround by next year. With the recent rebound in the credit markets, the company believes that it could add its assets back to its balance sheets. However, this would not be possible before the second half of 2010.

The Director of FINMA, Switzerland’s financial independent supervisory authority, has however commented that UBS’s financial situation has now stabilized though it would take some more time to become profitable once again.

The ongoing global economic turmoil has severely hurt the Swiss banking major’s balance sheet after the subprime crisis led to record losses. In particular, the investment banking arm of UBS experienced large trading losses after significant decreases in commissions and fee income.

The bank’s asset quality is beginning to turn negative and is expected to worsen further in the coming quarters. Moreover, upon request from French tax authorities, Switzerland has recently signed an agreement to share banking information from Jan 2010. This has resulted in large fund outflows as worried investors are eyeing a safe haven. However, we expect the recent signs of economic recovery to herald happy times for UBS. Additionally, the government’s exit from UBS and such restructuring activities provide some relief to the stock.
Read the full analyst report on "UBS"
Zacks Investment Research

RPRX, PWRM, WYN, CSRH, BX, CVAT, DELL, AQNM, IBM, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:58:37 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Wednesday October 7, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! RPRX, PWRM, WYN, CSRH, BX, CVAT, DELL, AQNM, IBM ************************************************************** RPRX, Repros Therapeutics Inc. RPRX focuses on the development of oral small molecule drugs for major unmet medical needs that treat male and female reproductive disorders. Secondary hypogonadism is a deficiency state in [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. has Identified Several new key Business Opportunities

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:51:13 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Wednesday October 7, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Provides Corporate Update Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) announced a corporate update with respect to its business activities. Over the course of the past 60 days, several meetings and presentations have occurred between [...]

Your Overjoyed To Have Your Credit Line Raised BY The Bank But Beware – The Bank Is Even Happier

Investment Education Staff — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:04:03 +0000

How many times have you been surprised by how much you charged on your credit card in the past month? Well that is what the banks want to happen. When you use that cards very few people keep good track of their total spending.

EMR, PWRM, AVCT, CSRH, MSFT, CVAT, PALM, AQNM, HON, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:42:52 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 6, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! EMR, PWRM, AVCT, CSRH, MSFT, CVAT, PALM, AQNM, HON ************************************************************** EMR, Emerson Electric Co. and AVCT, Avocent Corporation EMR a diversified global technology company, engages in designing and supplying product technology and delivering engineering services to various industrial and commercial, [...]

Equinix Grows Swiss Operation – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:30:47 +0000

At a recent press release, Equinix Inc. (EQIX) unveiled its plan to set up a 4,500 square meter or 48,400 square foot data center in Geneva , Switzerland . The company is in the process of expanding its global data center network to meet the global demand for data center services. This second data center in Geneva falls within the company’s $1.4 billion expansion plan to be executed within 2007 – 2010 in which the company expects to expand its operation in 15 out of 18 markets.

This new GV2 data center will be completed in phases. The first phase is scheduled to open in December 2009, increasing the company’s cabinet capacity by 380. The data center will have a total capacity of 780 cabinets after completion. This GV2 data center will run on the services of the company’s existing data center (GV1) which supports functions of internet service providers and telecom companies providing services to banking and non-banking companies.

As a leading provider of data center services, Equinix is well-positioned in a market that has become much less competitive over the past few years, creating a more favorable pricing environment. The company is continuously acquiring new clients, and expanding its current facilities. The company continues to exhibit fiscal discipline as well.

Equinix is committed to increasing its operations in Europe . Geneva being a good market, offers reasonable business opportunity for the company. We are positive about the company’s recurring revenue model and its expansion into the European market, which has very favorable characteristics. However, we believe that it would require significant capital expenses to build out its data centers, which may put some pressure on the financial resources of the company.
Read the full analyst report on "EQIX"
Zacks Investment Research

GD, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, CVAT, LMT, RTN, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:02:52 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Tuesday October 6, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! GD, PWRM, NOC, CSRH, CVAT, LMT, RTN ************************************************************** GD, General Dynamics Corp. GD is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. GD will provide enterprise information technology [...]

CSRH.OB Consorteum Holdings Inc. has Identified Several new key Business Opportunities

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:30:18 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Tuesday October 6, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Provides Corporate Update Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) announced a corporate update with respect to its business activities. Over the course of the past 60 days, several meetings and presentations have occurred between [...]

IMCI, GRMN, AQNM, CVS, CSRH, LVLT, CVAT, LMT, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:39:49 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Friday October 2, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! IMCI, GRMN, AQNM, CVS, CSRH, LVLT, CVAT, LMT ************************************************************** IMCI, Infinite Group Inc., IMCI.OB IMCI is a world-class IT services and solutions provider serving a range of government and commercial organizations. Headquartered in Pittsford, New York, with offices in the Washington, D.C., [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Provides Corporate Update

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:41:09 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Friday October 2, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Provides Corporate Update Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) announced a corporate update with respect to its business activities. Over the course of the past 60 days, several meetings and presentations have occurred [...]

IMCI, IBM, PWRM, ADSK, CSRH, CVAT, ADBE, HON, DrStockPick.com Stock Report!

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:45:26 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _________________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _________________________________________ Thursday October 1st, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! IMCI, IBM, PWRM, ADSK, CSRH, CVAT, ADBE, HON ************************************************************** IMCI, Infinite Group Inc., IMCI.OB IMCI is a world-class IT services and solutions provider serving a range of government and commercial organizations. Headquartered in Pittsford, New York, with offices in the Washington, [...]

Could Goldman Sachs Share GM’s Fate?

Contrarian Profits — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:38:32 +0000

pInvestment banks have gotten fat off the land since 1982, when the great U.S. bull market got its start. Their business has multiplied many-fold, and their earnings have soared into the stratosphere, to a level far higher than any other sector./p pNow, JPMorgan Chase #38; Co. (NYSE: a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=jpm"JPM/a) has issued a report suggesting that investment-banking returns on capital will be sharply down over the next few years. Perhaps this will be only a moderate downturn./p pHowever, there’s also a good chance that labor-cost pressures – combined with tightening margins – will take the likes of JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=gs"GS/a) down a path similar to that of General Motors Corp. (NYSE: a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AGRM"GRM/a) and a href="http://www.google.com/finance?cid=4090940"Chrysler Group LLP/a, a href="http://www.moneymorning.com/2009/06/01/general-motors-bankruptcy-2/"both of which#8230;/a/p

Ken Lewis Retiring from BofA – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:03:36 +0000

Ken Lewis, Chief Executive Officer and President of Bank of America Corporation (BAC), announced that he has notified the Board of Directors of his decision to retire, effective December 31, 2009.

The Board will continue ongoing planning to ensure his successor is selected by that date. Lewis will retire both as CEO and as a director.

On Aug. 3, 2009, Lewis, 62, had initiated changes to his executive management committee that increased the depth, expertise and diversity of experience of Bank of America's leadership team. Lewis had targeted these changes to position a number of senior executives to compete to succeed him at the appropriate time.

Lewis' decision to retire adds to the uncertainty for a company that has been under attack by regulators and lawmakers since its controversial purchase of Merrill Lynch a little more than a year ago.

The lack of a clear successor to replace Lewis, who has claimed a lot of the credit for transforming Bank of America into one of the biggest success stories in banking in recent years prior to the Merrill deal, raises concerns about the bank’s future.

There are also the various legal actions being taken against the firm related to the Merrill acquisition, including a securities fraud suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission that alleges the company misled investors about bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees.

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company serves clients in more than 150 countries. Major competitors are Citigroup Inc. (C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC).

We currently have a Neutral recommendation on BAC.
Read the full analyst report on "BAC"
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Read the full analyst report on "JPM"
Read the full analyst report on "WFC"
Zacks Investment Research

Ken Lewis Retiring from BofA – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:03:36 +0000

Consorteum Holdings Inc. (CSRH.OB) Updates Investor Community

QualityStocks — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:03:59 +0000

Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) this morning issued a corporate update to investors concerning its business activities. Over the last 60 days, the company has engaged in several meetings and presentations with various corporations, private and public, to further the development of its Card Programs, Merchant Discount Rates and new Joint Venture business relationship. Through [...]

Consorteum Holdings Inc. Provides Corporate Update

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:59:10 +0000

Dr Stock Pick HOT News & Alerts! _______________________________________ FREE Daily Stock Alerts From DrStockPick.com _______________________________________ Thursday October 1st, 2009 DrStockPick.com Stock Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Provides Corporate Update Nevada, October 1st, 2009. Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) is pleased to announce a corporate update with respect to its business activities. Over the course of the past 60 days, [...]

Prieur’s readings (September 30, 2009)

Prieur du Plessis — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 06:49:04 +0000

Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) Grows Its Role as Key Player in Payments and Transaction Processing Industry

QualityStocks — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:52:22 +0000

In a world of grand and often exaggerated mission statements, Consorteum Holdings Inc. has a simple but impressive business strategy: to continually build on its extensive expertise in the payments and transaction processing industry around the world. The company aims to increase revenues in its current markets, as well as enter new markets, by delivering [...]

Moody’s Techniques Deeply Flawed – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:34:15 +0000

Moody’s allegedly hastened the credit crisis earlier in the decade by assigning top ratings to mortgage-backed securities that deteriorated later. Moreover, it is being probed by regulators worldwide, with several ongoing reviews in Europe for rating a European debt product, constant proportion debt obligations (CPDOs), at a higher-than-merited AAA.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Eric Kolchinsky a former analyst with Moody's Corp. (MCO) has accused Moody's Investor Service of issuing inflated ratings and will make the matter public by taking it to U.S. congressional investigators.

Moody’s issued a high rating to a debt security, although it was planning to downgrade assets backing the securities. The Journal said that Moody's declined to make any comment but has suspended Mr. Kolchinsky, as he refused to cooperate with the investigation into the issues raised. Kolchinsky is scheduled to testify on the ratings firm reform before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Earlier, Swiss banking giant UBS AG (UBS) was ordered to pledge its assets or provide bonds worth $35 million after reports claimed that top credit ratings agencies had committed a securities fraud by providing insider trading information to the bank. UBS had entered a deal to sell its investment-grade collateralized debt obligation (CDO) notes in 2007 with the prior knowledge that the securities were about to be downgraded.

The proceedings revealed that the rating agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s provided insider information to UBS regarding their impending decision to downgrade some of the CDOs the bank was selling. The credit crunch led the securities to default only months after they were sold and UBS used the situation to its advantage.

The UBS litigation reflects a negative sentiment that has built up against large credit rating agencies for sharing furtive connections with big investment banks. This would certainly hurt Moody’s goodwill and highlight the fact that rating agencies can be bought. The integrity of the company and its ratings are in question.

The SEC has proposed rules for credit rating agencies to improve credit rating practices and transparency in ratings. The SEC has designed various measures to stop the practice of corporations seeking to buy favorable ratings by negotiating fees with raters.

Although Moody’s is not ultimately compensated on the accuracy of its ratings, we believe it will face large penalties. We believe that the rating agencies are hampered by conflicts of interest and the employees lack independence to give a fair rating. The major credit rating agencies under SEC scrutiny would be Moody’s, McGraw-Hill's (MHP) Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings.

Recently, Insurance regulators have approved CMBS ratings from Realpoint LLC for commercial mortgage-backed securities, a move aimed at providing an alternative to the major ratings agencies. But the question still remains whether this is enough to stop such malpractices. SEC will have to take strict actions against these rating agencies.
Read the full analyst report on "MCO"
Read the full analyst report on "UBS"
Read the full analyst report on "MHP"
Zacks Investment Research

Top Performer for Mon: First Midwest Bancorp (FMBI) – Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers

James Giaquinto — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:00:00 +0000

Regional banks are not often highlighted in the Zacks #1 Rank Top Performers commentary, but nobody told First Midwest Bancorp, Inc. (FMBI). With a share price gain of approximately 10.5%, the company makes the list to start off the week.

FMBI is a multi-bank holding company engaged in commercial banking, trust, investment management, insurance, mortgage origination and servicing activities.

It is 1 of 3 companies from the Banks-Midwest industry on today's 224-stock Zacks #1 Rank List. The other 2 companies are Princeton National Bancorp, Inc. (PNBC) and Wintrust Financial Corporation (WTFC).

Today, the company received a brokerage upgrade to "outperform" from "perform". Volume today is at 753,000 shares, which is above the daily average of 461,000. Meanwhile, on Friday FTBI announced a debt exchange offer that will allow it to retire nearly $69 million in debt.

Earnings Estimates

The past month has been good for FMBI in the earnings estimates department. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for this year is now at a penny profit per share, which is up from a loss of 5 cents per share in that timeframe. One of 7 covering analyst revised higher.

Meanwhile, analysts are expecting a hefty gain in profit next year over this year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the year ending December 2010 is at 71 cents, up 4 cents in 2 months and a penny in 30 days. Two of 8 covering analysts participated in the past month's gain.

Second Quarter

FMBI reported breakeven earnings per share in its second quarter, which was well below the year-ago total but above the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 100%.

"Performance for the quarter reflects the execution of a number of planned steps taken to strengthen the overall company and navigate what remains a very difficult operating environment," said President/CEO Michael L. Scudder.

"Our core operating performance remains solid as we continue to benefit from strong net interest margins, an efficient operating model, an increasing core deposit base and a flexible balance sheet," continued Mr. Scudder.

Zacks Investment Research

Ruinous Debt to Create Futureless Suburbia

Contrarian Profits — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 23:33:54 +0000

pIn our history, the American nation committed obvious sins against select groups of people, and we’ve paid bitterly for some of that. But now it’s our sins against the land itself that threaten to sink the USA as a viable enterprise./p pIt’s odd, that in his otherwise excellent blow-by-blow account (”Eight Days,” in the Sept 21 emNew Yorker Magazine/em) of the September 2008 Wall Street meltdown that left Lehman dead, and a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=AIG"AIG/a croaking in a ditch, and the banking system in general functionally crippled, reporter James B. Stewart never got around to really describing the cause of it all — namely, the on-the-ground material catastrophe of American suburbia./p pIt was the worthlessness of the tradable securitized debt associated with all those overpriced (and#8230;/p

BofA Cutting More Jobs – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:04:30 +0000

Bank of America Corporation (BAC) will lay off 51 workers by closing its check-processing center in St. Louis. According to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed with the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the retrenchment will take place by Oct 2, 2009.

As the use of debit cards and online banking has increased significantly in the recent years and customers now write fewer checks, BofA is trying to consolidate its check-processing operations nationwide.

BofA is the second-largest bank in the St. Louis area with $7.9 billion in deposits. BofA’s banking and non-banking subsidiaries across the United States and in other international markets provide a diverse range of banking and non-banking financial services and products.

We, however, think that Bank of America is in a relatively good shape from a capital perspective. During this delicate period of market stress, the availability of significant private-sector capital is very limited. As a result, the management remains focused on managing asset levels efficiently, ensuring the deployment of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds in core lending businesses and trimming other assets in non-core businesses.

We think that the management is quite confident about its capital position as it has indicated paying back TARP funds in installments.

We anticipate continued synergies from the company’s large scale operation and balance sheet restructuring, but higher credit costs and worsening credit quality will be a drag on upcoming results. Therefore, we are recommending the shares as Neutral.
Read the full analyst report on "BAC"
Zacks Investment Research

Consumer spending on the mend?

Prieur du Plessis — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:30:21 +0000

"There is some evidence out there that consumer spending has dropped so low, that with confidence anew, consumers are taking baby steps back into the spending picture," said Rebecca Wilder in this guest post. Read on ....

Obama and Market Regulation – Analyst Blog

Dirk Van Dijk — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:52:11 +0000

Yesterday I reviewed key sections of Obama's speech on Wall Street here: Obama On The Street.

In general I liked the speech, but think that the steps he has proposed are, at best, only a good first step. I hope that the proposals are strengthened in Congress, but have zero hope of that happening. More likely they will be watered down significantly. The end result is that we will face another market meltdown in the future; the only question is when.

Regulation of the financial industry is one of those extremely important, yet dry and dull subjects, that the general public will ignore, and the lobbyists will own. The bank lobby is extremely powerful and is going to fight things tooth and nail. Obama got a distinctly cool reception from the financial executives in the audience, with only a single round of applause.

However, one year after the government spent hundreds of billions to save the banking system, not a single major bank CEO even bothered to show up for the speech. The sense of entitlement and the lack of gratitude by Wall Street is simply stunning. Look for a big push by the industry to preserve the status quo, probably with folksy TV ads full of dishonest scare tactics. It could include stuff about killing innovation and all that, attempting to convince people they are safer without someone in D.C. trying to protect consumers from abusive financial products. How many really useful financial innovations have there been in the last 30 years that have helped consumers?

The big useful innovations like credit cards and ATMs all happened back in the 1960s and 1970s, when banks were more closely regulated. Back in the days of 3-6-3 banking, when a banker would borrow at 3% in the form of checking and savings deposits, lend at 6%, and be on the first tee by 3 PM. When that was the shape of banking, we didn't have to worry about meltdowns.

On the other hand, bankers were just members of the upper middle class, not regularly bringing home 8 figure compensation packages. The proposed consumer protection agency for financial products is probably the most important part of the reform package. It is also the one that the banks are going to try the hardest to kill. It is the acid test if the reform package is real, or just a fig leaf. I'll go one step further and say that any congressman of either party who votes against this is representing his big campaign contributors on Wall Street, and not the interests of his or her constituents.

Some of the proposals that Obama has made sound reasonable and possibly workable, but the real devil is in the details. He will attempt to solve the 'too big to fail' problem by requiring the bigger, TBTF banks to hold higher levels of capital than smaller non-systemically important banks. The big question is how much higher?

If it is only a nominal difference, then the big banks will be in a great position. The Federal government will be in effect guaranteeing the debt of those banks (just like it did for Fannie (FNM) and Freddie (FRE) before taking them over). This will result in a much lower cost of capital for a TBTF bank like J.P. Morgan (JPM) than for your average mid sized bank. The big banks will then be free to take the money and pile it all on 23 red on the roulette wheel (metaphorically). If they win, the bank makes a fortune, which it will then share generously with its top executives. If they lose, the taxpayers will pick up the tab if the amount lost exceeds the bank's capital. Debt obligations of the big banks will be almost as safe as treasuries.

On the other hand if the higher capital requirements are big enough, the lower leverage will greatly reduce the ROE of the big banks. The big banks will have more of their shareholders money at risk and might want to play it much safer.

Putting the Fed in charge of being the overall systemic risk regulator is somewhat problematic, given how slow the Fed was in recognizing the severity of the problems last year. However, I don't see a better alternative among the existing agencies.

A case could perhaps be made for the FDIC, but their expertise is only with the banks, and the shadow banking system was a big part of the problem. Putting it in the hands of a committee of different agencies is just an excuse to do nothing. Would you be reassured if it was in the hands of some inter agency council? I know I would not be. I would however couple the increased authority for the Fed with the requirement that the Fed actually be audited, a proposal that Rep. Ron Paul has been pushing.

So given how complicated financial regulation is, how should consumers try to follow it? Perhaps the best way is to look at who is pushing for what. If the mortgage bankers association is pushing for a change in the regulation package, you should know that it is not in the best interests of consumers.

For more on this subject, I highly recommend reading this post by Simon Johnson, the former chief economist at the IMF over at the Baseline Scenario.

Read the full analyst report on "FNM"
Read the full analyst report on "FRE"
Read the full analyst report on "JPM"
Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service Inc., UBS AG, Moody’s Corp. and McGraw-Hill – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:00:32 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 14, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: FedEx Corp. (FDX), United Parcel Service Inc. (SNDA), UBS AG (UBS), Moody’s Corp. (MCO) and McGraw-Hill (MHP).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

FedEx Preannouncement Beats

Shares of FedEx Corp. (FDX) have jumped more than 5% so far today after the company preannounced fiscal first-quarter earnings, which topped Wall Street expectations.

The package-delivery major said that it expects to post earnings of 58 cents per share, which is well above its guidance of 30 cents to 45 cents as well as the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 43 cents per share. The company reported earnings of $1.23 per share in the year-ago quarter.

The Memphis, TN-based company also stated that fiscal second-quarter earnings is expected to range between 65 cents and 95 cents per share, which is in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 71 cents per share derived from 15 covering analysts. The guidance is still well below the year-ago earnings of $1.58 per share.

FedEx attributed the better-than-expected first quarter earnings to improved International Priority (IP) shipping volumes and management’s cost cutting efforts. The IP service generated revenues of nearly $7 billion and contributed about 19.6% towards total revenue during fiscal 2009.

However, the company added that revenue per shipment dipped year over year in each of the transportation segments amid a competitive pricing environment coupled with significant overcapacity in less-than-truckload (LTL) freight market. The company, which competes with United Parcel Service Inc. (SNDA), also said that the second quarter guidance incorporates the current outlook on fuel prices and a modest recovery in global economic conditions.

Moody's Under SEC Axe

Swiss banking giant UBS AG (UBS) was recently ordered to pledge its assets or provide bonds worth $35 million by Judge John Blawie at Connecticut Superior Court. The unfavorable order came as a blow after reports claimed that top credit ratings agencies had committed a securities fraud by providing insider trading information to the bank.

Stanford-based hedge fund Pursuit Partners claimed that UBS had entered a deal to sell its investment-grade collateralized debt obligation (CDO) notes in 2007 with the prior knowledge that the securities were about to be downgraded.

The proceedings revealed that the rating agencies Moody’s Corp. (MCO) and Standard & Poor's provided insider information to UBS regarding their impending decision to downgrade some of the CDOs the bank was selling. The credit crunch led the securities to default only months after they were sold and UBS used the situation to its advantage.

The Court order came at the end of a one-week hearing, where various UBS employees testified and related documents, including internal UBS e-mails, were reviewed. However, UBS pledged innocence saying that the Court’s decision was a routine procedure, requiring defendants to provide security during the case proceedings.

The UBS litigation reflects a negative sentiment that has built up against large credit rating agencies for sharing furtive connections with big investment banks. This would certainly hurt Moody’s goodwill and highlight the fact that rating agencies can be bought. The integrity of the company and its ratings are in question.

The SEC has designed various measures to stop the practice of corporations seeking to buy favorable ratings by negotiating fees with raters. Although Moody’s is not ultimately compensated on the accuracy of its ratings, we believe it will face large penalties similar to investment banks in the wake of the technology bubble earlier in the decade.

The SEC is expected to hold a meeting on Sept. 17 to vote on proposed rules for credit rating agencies and pose restrictions on controversial flash orders. Regulators will also vote on the subject on adopting previously proposed rules to improve credit rating practices. The major credit rating agencies under the scrutiny would be Moody's, McGraw-Hill (MHP), Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings.

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Finance Jobs Going Where the Growth Is – Asia

Jason Simpkins — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:07:51 +0000

China is Investing Billions in Renewable Energy One firm has already built China’s largest wind turbine manufacturing factory. And it’s working with the Chinese Science Academy to develop new wind, solar, and geothermal technologies… for which it will own 70% of the rights. But this company’s business reaches far beyond the Chinese border, with operations [...]

Differing Views on the Spanish Banking Sector

Claus Vistesen — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:23:46 +0000

Who does not like a good argument? I for one do, especially when it comes to economics. A lot of water has already gone under the bridge relative to the note published a couple of weeks back by VariantPerception on the Spanish banking sector which provided a timely and, in my opinion, accurate analysis of the issues facing the Spanish banking and financial system as a function of the dire macroeconomic situation Spain finds itself with skyrocketing unemployment and lingering (and entrenching) deflation. Now, the reason that I point out how "a lot of water has gone under the bridge" is quite simply that I know the people at Variant and, as you know, I also know Edward Hugh who was very effective in dessimating the conclusions of the report across his (second) empire now growing on Facebook. As Edward noted here on A Fistful of Euros in the immediate aftermath of VariantPerception's report, it quickly got a lot of attention.

Now, I wish that I could present PDFs of both reports here (i.e. the VP and Iberian Equity report), but I can't due to the fact that such reports are usually behind the firewall. However, this first note by FT's Alphaville on the VP report and the second note, just published, on the challenge by Iberian Equities are enough to get a sense of the argument.

I have seen VP's rebuttal and I still square with their side of the fence. Especially, Iberia Equities make the following point in their report;

"Variant claims Spanish banks are not marking their loan books to market. Non-performing loans in Spain (4.6% of the system’s loans by the end of Jun’09) are marked-down according to different provisioning calendars set by the Central Bank. For non-mortgage loans, NPLs are provisioned at the end of year 2. The majority of mortgage loans (40% of loans or two thirds of mortgage loans) have been – until the BoS made changed the interpretation of the rule - also 100% provisioned by year 2. Only a small fraction of
low –risk mortgages (20% of loans) are provisioned according to a long calendar (100% provision by year 6). By international standards, Spain’s provisioning calendars are quite strict especially considering >60% of loans have a mortgage collateral".

To which VP replies;

"Non-performing loans are being passed off as current, vacuumed up and rolled ito cedulas to deposit at the ECB's repo window. (Incidentally, that is the only way many Spanish banks are finding any semblance of liquidity right now. Without the ECB, some Spanish banks would have the same liquidity problems that subprime mortgage originators had. The ECB is a mega warehouse, effectively, for the Spanish banking system. This is intimately tied in to the question of funding excess consumption in Spain, which we discussed.)"

In my opinion and apart from the glaring neglect, in the Iberian Equity report, on the macroeconomics of the situation this is the most important omission. This is to say, that had it not been possible (which it still is) for Spanish banks to park many of their assets at the ECB as collateral for funding, they would have effectively needed to mark to a non-existing market (i.e. write off the whole thing in one swoop in which case it would have been bye bye Sandy). I mean, this was what happended with Bear Stearns and Lehmann and then only afterwards did the Fed (and the "appointed" buyers) wade in to scoop up these assets which are now sitting and waiting for better times (presumably, I mean, I don't know how quick they are ground down to reflect market fundamentals).

So, as you can see, I am still with VP here but not everyone may agree in which case it is naturally something which should be debated with facts and reason.

An Empire of Consumption

Byron King — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:01:13 +0000

pJust reading the newspapers gives me a daily diet of economic gloom. For example, my pessimism for today (Aug. 26) started with the headline of my local newspaper this morning. emThe Pittsburgh Tribune Review/em delivered a banner message, “Record Red Forecast at $1.58 Trillion.” (I think they printed the newspaper before the word came out that Sen. Ted Kennedy died.)/p pThen for a national perspective, I looked at emThe Wall Street Journal/em, which published a slightly different alliteration, strong“Decade of Debt: $9 Trillion.”/strong And finally, for an international view, emThe Financial Times/em summed it all up in characteristic British understatement, with, “US Says Debt Outlook Worsening.” Oh, you don’t say./p pThe big problem – obviously, the headline issue – with the US economy is too#8230;/p

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights: Amdocs, GameStop, Merck, Schering-Plough and Citigroup Inc. – Press Releases

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:00:05 +0000

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 2, 2009 – Zacks Equity Research highlights Amdocs (DOX) as the Bull of the Day and GameStop (GME) the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Merck (MRK), Schering-Plough (SGP) and Citigroup Inc. (C).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at http://at.zacks.com/?id=2676

Here is a synopsis of all five stocks:

Bull of the Day:

We maintain our Outperform recommendation for Amdocs (DOX) following its strong results for the fiscal third quarter of fiscal 2009. The company has industry-leading technology integration products for large transformational projects and managed services.

Long-term fundamentals for Amdocs remain firm due to the transition of telecom service providers to converged and consolidated solutions. Amdocs maintains a very strong financial position with healthy order backlog.

Recently, the company has won a series of large managed services contracts in various parts of the world. Except North America, operations in other regions have started gaining momentum.

Bear of the Day:

The video game industry, which surged ahead for a number of years, is now grappling with the recession. Heavy job losses and reduced access to credit markets have led to lower discretionary spending

This has resulted in lower demand for video game consoles and new software. This unfavorable backdrop was evident from GameStop’s (GME) dismal recent results. Despite the weak environment, management expects the release of popular titles in the second half of 2009 to stimulate sales.

We maintain an Underperform rating on the stock until we see an upturn in the company's growth trajectory.

Citi Sells Credit Card Portfolio – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:30:24 +0000

Citigroup Inc. (C) announced on Monday the sale of ownership of three North American partnered credit card portfolios, representing approximately $1.3 billion in managed assets.

The sale constitutes the divesture initiatives taken by Citigroup to offload weak businesses and troubled assets that have caused huge losses in the past quarters. The portfolios were part of Citi Holdings, one of the company's segments resulting from the split earlier in the year. Citi Holdings holds the company's riskier assets and tougher-to-manage ventures, while Citicorp comprises the core franchise focusing on traditional banking around the world to generate long-term profitability.

Terms of the deals and the acquirer were not disclosed. Citigroup will continue to service the card portfolios through the first half of 2010 when the acquirer takes on those responsibilities.

In October 2008, the U.S. government injected $45 billion into Citigroup as federal bailout and is the bank's largest shareholder, with a roughly a 34% stake.

Troubled assets still hang over the firm's future, housed in Citi Holdings. The group has harnessed deals for profitable non-core assets like Nikko Cordial in Japan as well as a joint venture with Morgan Stanley (MS) for Smith Barney and some overseas divisions relatively quickly. But it is still struggling with lesser attractive assets like Primerica, CitiMortgage, CitiFinancial and a special pool of toxic assets that has a loss-sharing agreement with the government.
Read the full analyst report on "C"
Read the full analyst report on "MS"
Zacks Investment Research

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, Subsidiary My Golf Rewards Canada Inc. Plans to Capitalize on 60 Million Golfers Worldwide

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:02:12 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! Consorteum Holdings Inc, Subsidiary My Golf Rewards Canada Inc. Plans to Capitalize on 60 Million Golfers Worldwide DrStockPick Stock Report! Tuesday September 1st, 2009 ********************************************************** It’s hard to deny the presence of golf in America or the different types of players that make up the sport. Industry figures have continually shown [...]

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Generating Revenues within the Payments and Transaction Industry

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:40:48 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Generating Revenues within the Payments and Transaction Industry DrStockPick Stock Report! Monday August 31, 2009 ********************************************************** For one year, 2006, 250 million rebate checks were issued, and the number is fairly consistent. Rebates are offered by manufacturers to entice the consumer to buy a particular product, and with [...]

Getting the Big Questions Right

Dirk Van Dijk — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:58:35 +0000

Sometimes in investing there is a tendency to over think things, to get bogged down in the details, to lose the forest through a close study of the trees. It is not that such matters are irrelevant, but that if you get the big major questions right you will be most of the way there.

Unfortunately, most investors tend to avoid even asking the big really important questions, or at least don't act on them. The big questions really tend to boil down to what sectors you should be investing in. Yet, many investors simply rely on indexing instead. Even worse, those that do not explicitly index often invest in mutual funds that "closet index".

Investment managers will do that because there is a big premium put on not being too far away from the "bogey", usually the S&P 500. Sure, it's great if they are substantially better than the index on the upside, but the consequence of sharply lagging, even for only one year, is that you get fired.

The end result is that much of money management turns into the relentless pursuit of mediocrity. It turns out you can make a very good living just mimicking the overall index. After all, the majority of active managers actually underperform the S&P 500 over any given five year time period. Being down 10% when the market is down 8% will not get them fired; however, being up 15% when the market is up 25% will.

In any given year, most fund managers don't underperform by all that much. The reason is that their sector allocations tend to be very close to that of the overall index, and they have overhead costs that eat into the returns. They will then spend a huge amount of time and effort trying to decide if they should buy Exxon Mobil instead of Chevron, Proctor & Gamble or Colgate. The fact is that most of the time, if Exxon is going up, then so is Chevron, and by very similar percentages. Both will tend to be driven by the price of oil. However, if your goal is to beat the market by 1% or 2% per year, and not underperform it by that much, then making the right choice between XOM or CVX can make the difference. If your objective is to create real wealth, you are spending lots of effort for minimal results.

There is a reasonable case to be made for actual indexing, since it aims to lower the overhead costs and, over time, that adds up. There is not much good that can be said for closet indexing. Despite that, it is done all the time, not because it is good for the investor, but because it is a very safe choice for the manager's job security. Just because at the start of 2000 over 30% of the S&P 500 market value was in technology was not a very good reason to have 30% of your money there when some of those stocks were selling for over 30X SALES! But that is what all those closet indexers were buying.

However, if really believe indexing is the answer (because of low costs), I doubt you would be reading this. Just send your money to Vanguard and forget about it. You will not beat the market, but you will not underperform it, and you don't have to pay a lot for it. On the other hand, you are not going to build real wealth that way.

In effect, people took a very good idea, diversification way too far. The reduction of risk (volatility) you get by holding 50% of your assets in one stock and 50% in another is huge. This is particularly true if the stocks are in different industries. But having 101 stocks in your portfolio rather than 100, does not meaningfully reduce your risk. Buying a little bit of everything is fine if you don't really want to work at it, but it will not make you wealthy.

This isn't to say that stock selection counts for nothing. But most of the time within major industry groups the difference is minor compared to the difference between the major groups. For example, look at the chart below that shows the performance of Exxon, Chevron, Citigroup, and Bank of America over the last 3 years. While it is true that you would have preferred to be in CVX instead of XOM over that period and in BAC instead of C, but really, the important decision was to be in oil instead of banking.

To take another example, here is the same sort of chart with Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Macy's and JC Penney on it. Again the big question was not do you want to have a Coke or a Pepsi? It was would you rather be in soft drinks or department stores?

Picking the right stocks within a group can be very hard to do. Getting the big questions right is not always easy, but can be done with a good understanding of what is happening in the world around you. Since most of your relative return is going to be decided if you are in the right industry, not the right stock within that the industry, doesn't it make sense to spend most of your effort trying to figure out which is the right industry?

The differences in returns between companies in the same industry is in large part determined by the details of their capital structure, the quality of their management, and perhaps their ability to come out with successful new products. Unless you have a lot of time on your hands this can be hard to figure out. Fortunately, the analysts on Wall Street spend all their time focusing on those sorts of details. The most significant items will ultimately find their way into the income statement. The best way to keep track of if things are improving or deteriorating is to see if the analysts are raising or lowering their expectations for future earnings. The Zacks Rank does a very good job of this.

The differences between industries are driven much more by the big trends in the economy. Is the price of oil going up or down? Is the dollar going to be weak or strong? Is inflation going to increase or decrease? Is the economy going to boom or bust? Are consumers in a mood to spend or save? Answering these questions right depends on an understanding of what is happening in the world around us, and then understanding how each of those sorts of questions will affect different industry groups. Getting the big questions right leads to asking the right questions about the little picture. Answering them right leads to big returns.

If you just want to try to beat the market by 1% a year, then weight your portfolio with the same weights that the S&P 500 has and then spend all your time worrying about Coke or Pepsi. If you want real wealth, focus on the big questions. But it's not easy because economics, politics and the stock market are not exact sciences. So if you have a great track record at gauging these 3 areas over time, then I salute you. If not, then you might need some help from folks who do understand these things and have a good track record. Oh yeah, I'm talking about myself.

Think about how much you would have made buying homebuilders in 2000 and riding the wave until 2006. It didn't really matter if you bought Centex or Standard Pacific, you would have made a fortune. I was a portfolio manager then and had the most I was allowed to have in a single industry (per the prospectus) in the group. I am also on record telling people to get out of the group in the middle of 2006, saying the housing bubble was going to burst.

That is what drives our Strategic Investor, the new Zacks service I’m directing. If you have ever read my Strategy Report, you know that I spend a lot of time thinking about those big questions and predicting how they will affect different industries and sectors.

My track record in this regard has been well documented. As early as late 2005, I was urging people to invest in Energy and Commodities. In the middle of 2007, I was pointing out the huge risks to the financial system from the bursting of the housing bubble. In early 2008, I warned that raising the conforming limit was putting Fannie and Freddie in grave danger. At the time, most of the Street was saying things were "contained".

In the Strategic Investor, I will be striving to continue to get the big questions right. I will also answer them with specific investment recommendations aimed at substantial long-term profits. You may want to look into this service today because a significant savings opportunity ends after this weekend.

Click here for more details about the Strategic Investor.

Sincerely,
Dirk van Dijk, CFA

With more than 25 years of experience as an analyst and portfolio manager, Dirk is Zacks' Chief Equity Strategist. He regularly authors market strategy reports and articles, and appears on many investment TV programs. He also manages the new long-term investing service, Strategic Investor.Zacks Investment Research

INTC, CSRH, DrStockPick Stock Report! Intel Corp. and Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:12:44 +0000

INTC, Intel Corp. CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! Intel raises sales forecast; shares jump 4 percent ________________________________ CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Extensive Expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry DrStockPick Stock Report! Friday August 28, 2009 ********************************************************** INTC, Intel Corp. -Intel raises sales forecast; shares jump 4 percent INTC Intel Corp. raised its third-quarter revenue forecast above Wall Street’s expectations Friday, citing [...]

Low Interest Rates Make Saving Money Difficult

Investment Education Staff — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:44:32 +0000

Anyone who has money to invest is hurt by low interest rates. If you want to buy things on credit such as a car you might like the interest rates where they are now but people who have money sitting around are not happy. Right now the saying time is money does not really apply to bank cds and other investments where you make money by lending it to banks.

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Extensive Expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 08:31:34 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Extensive Expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry DrStockPick Stock Report! Friday August 28, 2009 ********************************************************** CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc.’s business strategy is to build on extensive expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry in North America, Europe and Internationally. By identifying new technologies and trends in [...]

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Capitalizing on the Global Opportunities within the Growing Financial Services, Payment and Transaction Processing Marketplace.

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:03:33 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Capitalizing on the Global Opportunities within the Growing Financial Services, Payment and Transaction Processing Marketplace DrStockPick Stock Report! Thursday August 27, 2009 ********************************************************** CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc.’s business strategy is to build on extensive expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry in North America, Europe and Internationally. By [...]

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Capitalizing on the Global Opportunities within the Growing Financial Services, Payment and Transaction Processing Marketplace.

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:14:23 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc. Capitalizing on the Global Opportunities within the Growing Financial Services, Payment and Transaction Processing Marketplace DrStockPick Stock Report! Wednesday August 26, 2009 ********************************************************** CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc.’s business strategy is to build on extensive expertise within the Payments and Transaction Industry in North America, Europe and [...]

Goldman Becomes Holding Co. – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:08:41 +0000

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) announced that it has received Federal Reserve’s approval on August 14, 2009 to become a financial holding company.

Goldman had intended to seek FHC status when it first converted to a Bank Holding Company last year. The designation allows Goldman to continue to participate in non-banking financial activities, including private equity among other businesses.

A financial holding company (FHC), as stated in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999, is a financial entity engaged in a broad range of banking-related activities that include insurance underwriting, securities dealing and underwriting, financial and investment advisory services, merchant banking, issuing or selling securitized interests in bank-eligible assets. It can also engage in any non-banking activity authorized by the Bank Holding Company Act. The Federal Reserve Board is responsible for supervising the financial condition and activities of these companies.

Morgan Stanley (MS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C) are some of the many companies that have already acquired the status of a financial holding company.

There was some speculation that Goldman might shed its holding company status to return to an investment bank model after it repaid the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) money and the Treasury Department warrants. However, now it seems that Goldman will continue to be under the supervision of the Fed for some time.
Read the full analyst report on "GS"
Read the full analyst report on "MS"
Read the full analyst report on "JPM"
Read the full analyst report on "C"
Zacks Investment Research

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:42:51 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Wednesday August 19, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

Elavon Extends KeyCorp JV – Analyst Blog

Zacks Market Commentaries — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 18:15:18 +0000

Elavon, a part of U.S. Bancorp (USB) said on Tuesday that it has extended its joint venture agreement with KeyCorp (KEY) for the latter’s merchant referral business for another three years.

The leading global card acquirer, Elavon, markets its merchant processing services through KeyBank to business customers in 21 geographic districts straddling across a 13-state network of almost 1,000 commercial office and retail branch locations.

The extension of the agreement allows KeyBank to continue offering white-labeled merchant services supported by Elavon, which is solely dedicated to the payments industry. Elavon’s entire, robust solutions offerings are available to KeyBank merchants, from credit and debit processing to Dynamic Currency Conversion, Electronic Check, Gift Card, professional services and free online reporting.

As a strong leader in regional banking, KeyCorp provides exceptional value and innovation to Elavon’s customers, resulting in strong portfolio performance for the global card acquirer.

Weakening credit quality, net interest margin contraction and rating downgrades are major negatives for KeyCorp at this point, but the company is in the process of reducing its exposure to the home builders segment of its CRE business given the negative outlook for that segment.

During the last few quarters, KeyCorp’s total residential property exposure in CRE, including loans held for sale has reduced gradually. Also, the company has no subprime mortgage portfolio, credit card portfolio, or consumer auto loan portfolio.

Though the company will benefit from its initiatives to exit the risky and unprofitable businesses, we expect elevated provision requirements and a weak net interest to put significant pressure on profitability. As such, shares of KeyCorp carry an Underperform recommendation from us.
Read the full analyst report on "USB"
Read the full analyst report on "KEY"
Zacks Investment Research

Recovery taking shape

Prieur du Plessis — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:02:32 +0000

By Cees Bruggemans The SARB decision last week to resume cutting interest rates is interesting, given that our CPI inflation is likely to only modestly decrease further towards 5% next year, even as global growth keeps signaling its return and our own economy likewise signals a turn in progress. What does that make the SARB action? Are [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:02:01 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Tuesday August 18, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:07:55 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Monday August 17, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

BBT, ERHE, PennyOmega.com Watch List ! for Monday August 17, 2009, BB T Corp. and ERHC Energy Inc, ERHE.OB

PennyOmega.com — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:35:57 +0000

BBT, BB & T Corp. ERHE, ERHC Energy Inc, ERHE.OB PennyOmega.com Watch List! PennyOmega.com Watch List ! for Monday August 17, 2009 Our Picks at PennyOmega.com for Monday August 17, 2009 are: ************************************************************** BBT, BB & T Corp. BBT operates as the holding company for Branch Banking and Trust Company that provides banking and trust services for small and mid-size businesses, public [...]

PennyOmega.com Stock Report! 8/14/09, MKRS, HPQ, STRN, PMI, CTL, LMT

PennyOmega.com — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:01:04 +0000

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SCHW Schwab Reports Monthly Activity Highlights August 14, 2009

Stock-PR — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:13:46 +0000

The Charles Schwab Corporation released its Monthly Market Activity Report today. Company highlights for the month of July 2009 include: * Net new assets brought to the company by new and existing clients in July 2009 totaled $5.6 billion. * Total client assets were $1.286 trillion as of month-end July, down 8% from July 2008 and up [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:41:41 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Friday August 14, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:15:10 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Thursday August 13, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

MPG, AMFI, AQNM Stock-PR Stock Report August 11, 2009

Stock-PR — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:51:36 +0000

Maguire Properties Inc. (MPG) Maguire Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), engages in the ownership, management, acquisition, and development of office and real estate properties primarily in California. Web Site: http://www.maguireproperties.com Recent News: Maguire to unload six Orange County properties, one Los Angeles property Maguire not considering bankruptcy AMCORE Financial, Inc. (AMFI) AMCORE Financial, Inc. operates as the bank holding [...]

Don’t Bet on Canada’s Banks

Contrarian Profits — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:34:48 +0000

pIn the last 18 months, emStrategic Short Report/em readers had the chance to make 432% when Lehman failed, 162% when Allied Capital (NYSE:a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=Allied+Capital"ALD/a) came clean, and 220% on PNC Financial (NYSE:a href="http://www.google.com/finance?q=PNC+Financial"PNC/a)… This month my subscribers are poised to make money on the next bank drop./p pAnd I’m going to give you a chance to join them./p pIf you think Canada escaped the downward trend in U.S. banking, think again. While the country may not have plunged headfirst into subprime mortgages, it did dip heavily into risky derivatives. The leverage it took on generated impressive returns on equity in good times, but that same leverage is set to wipe out equity today./p pShareholders in one “safe” Canadian bank will have to rethink their loyalty. Its#8230;/p

Are We Being Conned About Gold Consfication?

Contrarian Profits — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:37:43 +0000

pThere’s a lot of Internet chatter these days about the possibility of the U.S. government seizing its citizens’ private gold holdings. What are the chances?/p pWell, it’s always good to bear in mind that there is no telling what the government might do. It’s already doing things that were unthinkable just a few years ago. If President Obama believes there is political hay to be made from seizing your gold – or even if he sincerely thinks such a move would be “good for the country” – we’re sure he won’t hesitate to make the grab. After all, his favorite predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, set the precedent./p pMany Americans don’t even realize that private gold ownership was forbidden for forty years, but it#8230;/p

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:44:56 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Monday August 10, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

Iranian Russophobia

Robert Amsterdam — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:11:40 +0000

Nezavisimaya Gazeta has an editorial advising the Russian government to diversify its ties with the Iranian opposition, so relations don't go down with the ship if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's political troubles continue. From the Los Angeles Times:"The popularity of Ahmadinejad is...

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick Stock Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 14:44:30 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick Stock Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick Stock Report! Friday August 7, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within [...]

CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (PennyOmega.com Stock Report!)

PennyOmega.com — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:52:37 +0000

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Consorteum Holdings Inc. (CSRH.OB) Announces Introduction of New Financial Services Division

QualityStocks — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:18:54 +0000

Consorteum Holdings, Inc. announced this morning that it has created a new division focused on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within the public and private sectors. The new division will operate together with Consorteum’s existing divisions, which are application-specific and industry-specific. The Consorteum Financial Services Division will be managed by a leading expert [...]

PennyOmega.com Stock Report! 8/05/09,

PennyOmega.com — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:18:26 +0000

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CSRH Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division (DrStockPick News Report!)

Dr. Stock Pick — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:35:22 +0000

CSRH, Consorteum Holdings Inc, CSRH.OB DrStockPick News Report! DrStockPick News Report! “Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division“ DrStockPick News Report! Wednesday August 5, 2009 ********************************************************** Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division Las Vegas, Nevada August 05, 2009 - Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing [...]

CSRH.OB Consorteum Holdings Inc. Introduces New Financial Services Division

Stock-PR — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:14:29 +0000

Las Vegas CRWENewswire.com is pleased to announce a stock highlight on Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) Sign up to receive FREE Stock-PR alerts from CRWENewswire.com at http://www.crwenewswire.com/?p=2546 Consorteum Holdings, Inc. (CSRH.OB) announced that it has created a new Division within the Company that will focus on providing financial services to consumers, employees and individuals within both the [...]

Hot New Spanish Model… for Banking

Investment U — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:57:56 +0000

Hot New Spanish Model… for Banking Tony Daltorio, The Investment U Research Team There’s a hot new Spanish model that has everyone in Europe going ga-ga. No, it’s not a runway or swimsuit model. It’s Spain’s banking model. The Bank of Spain forced Spanish banks to follow a very conservative banking model using what they call “dynamic [...]