Browse by Tags
-
Posted
Feb 04 2009, 03:59 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Why don't banks hold executive retreats at someplace like the Hyatt Regency Wichita? I'm sure Wichita, Kan., is a beautiful place, and holds none of the indulgent excess of, say, 12 nights at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas.
The Wynn is where Wells Fargo (WFC) had booked rooms for a dozen nights to reward its top employees and their guests. But after suffering intense criticism for the move -- Wells Fargo did get $25 billion in taxpayer money, after all -- the company abruptly canceled the event Tuesday.
At first, Wells Fargo defended the junket as an annual tradition. Previous trips have included private Jimmy Buffett concerts, horseback riding, wine tasting and gifts laid on pillows, The Associated Press reports. But as time went by, Wells found it harder to justify the expense.
So once again we witness a culture clash between Wall Street and the real world.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jun 02 2008, 06:37 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Did you ever wonder which stocks Warren Buffett holds in Berkshire Hathaway? Here's a snapshot of his various holdings, broken down alphabetically, as of the reporting cut off date of March 31, 2008.
Some have multiple positions because of various entities that are held. Here goes:
Read More...
-
Posted
Apr 14 2008, 02:58 PM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Early indications from companies like Wachovia and General Electric show that the last half of March may have been tougher on bank earnings than Wall Street expects. Bloomberg recently reported that Citigroup, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo could all miss consensus estimates. But by how much?
A look at the spread of Q1 estimates gives some hint about how far off actual numbers could be compared with investor expectations. At Citigroup, among 15 analysts polled by First Call the average EPS estimate is a loss of $.95. But, the lowest estimate is a loss of $2.24. At JP Morgan, the average figure from fourteen analysts is $.66, but the worst case is a loss of $.11. For Wells Fargo, twenty-three analysts have an average forecast of Q1 EPS at $.57, but the low number is $.45.
The huge discrepancy among the numbers should be troubling to shareholders because recent information would argue that share prices for most banks and brokerages may still be way too high.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jan 02 2009, 07:15 AM
by
Kim Peterson
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) dropped 32% last year, the worst performance in 30 years, Bloomberg reports. The biggest part of the decline happened after Buffett wrote a controversial editorial three months ago urging people to buy American stocks. But at least Berkshire is maintaining its track record of outperforming the S&P 500 Index, which plunged 38% last year. “Berkshire can’t escape the general fate of American businesses," a money manager told Bloomberg. "What Buffett tries to do is ensure that Berkshire Hathaway does less badly than other companies.” What's taking Berkshire down?
Read More...
-
Posted
Mar 25 2009, 09:25 AM
by
James Dlugosch
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner site InvestorPlace.com.
It's a crazy thought, right? Why on Earth would anyone want to own bank stocks?
The banking sector is the main reason our economy fell off the cliff last year and continues to struggle. There are more billions, if not trillions, in losses coming as loan defaults and foreclosures persist. Solvency is a very real issue for many banks; some stockholders will be left with worthless stock certificates when this drama is all said and done.
Banks are the scourge of the Earth at the moment, and some of the biggest -- say, Citigroup (C) and Bank of America (BAC) -- are among the worst off. But the government and the Federal Reserve have drawn a line in the sand making it clear that they will do everything in their power to prevent further collapses of financial institutions.
So, I decided to ferret out several bank stocks recently for InvestorPlace and found some that I think are long-term buys. Here are three that aren't the big names:
Read More...
-
Posted
Sep 30 2009, 07:36 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
 This article is written by Minyanville's Justin Rohrlich
The financial crisis that began in August 2007 had relatively little to do with traditional bank lending…Its prime cause was the rise and fall of "securitized lending," which allowed banks to originate loans but then repackage and sell them out.
-- Niall Ferguson, The Ascent Of Money
The dust is still settling from the great market crash of 2008-09, and we still don’t know exactly who or what to blame. It might have been securitization, but it probably wasn’t David Bowie. For more on securities, see Banks Realize Securities Are Like a Box of Chocolates.
Securitization is the process of taking a group of assets and transforming them into a tradable security. By aggregating them into one large pool, investor risk is, in concept at least, distributed more evenly. Asset-backed securities resemble bonds in that they pay a fixed amount of interest over a specific time period. Bing: The history of Bowie bonds
These securities can be backed by mortgages, credit card debt, car loans, or anything else that will (theoretically) generate future cash flow. Like song royalties, for instance.
Read More...
-
Posted
Aug 25 2009, 08:32 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
This article is written by Minyanville's Justin Rohrlich
Hey buddy, can you spare a wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano?
Italy is in the throes of its fourth recession since 2002, with the country’s economy expected to contract 5.3% this year. And, for many producers, cheese seems to be the only way out.
Credito Emiliano, an Italian bank in the Emilia-Romagna region, has been accepting parmesan cheese as collateral since the early 1950s -- and is now considering treating prosciutto, olive oil and balsamic vinegar the same way, according to Steve Jenkins, one of America’s foremost cheese experts.
Bing: Italy recession
The bank does not store the cheese on site -- this is the purview of a unit called Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate, which holds 440,000 wheels worth a little less than $190 million.
“This mechanism is our life blood,” Giuseppe Montanari, a parmesan producer, told Bloomberg News. “It’s a great way to finance our expenses at convenient rates, and the bank doesn’t risk much because they can always sell the cheese.”
Read More...
-
Posted
Oct 24 2008, 06:39 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
No matter where economists look there is no evidence that a recession in the US, EU, and Asia is doing anything but deepening. The stock markets are the least of it. Some of the indexes in the largest countries are off 40% from their peaks reached a year ago. Banks are failing. In cases where the government has not stepped in some have disappeared and others have been merged into more healthy institutions. Healthy for now, that is.
The financial sector could easily lose several hundred thousand jobs in the US. New York City expects employment in the banking and brokerage sector to fall by 150,000. Marriages like the ones between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan and Wachovia (WB) and Wells Fargo will clearly put tens of thousands of people out of jobs. Goldman Sachs apparently will let 10% of its workers go.
The trouble has spread well beyond banks. Merck, Xerox, GM, and Chrysler just said they will push more poor souls out the door. Even a successful tech company such as Hewlett-Packard has taken significant numbers of people out of its workforce.
Read More...
-
Posted
Jul 21 2009, 07:05 AM
by
Minyanville
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Sunwest Bank, a community bank in Orange County, Calif., looked very much like an outlier from 2005 to 2007.
Orange County was the epicenter of subprime mortgage lending -- half of the biggest 20 subprime lenders in the U.S. were located there -- and Ground Zero for mortgage brokers hawking no-money-down adjustable-rate mortgages. All the extremes of the housing bubble could be found in Orange County.
Unlike its peers, Sunwest Bank neatly sidestepped the trouble. It never touched subprime lending. It warned of the dangers ahead. And it deliberately left other speculative lending, like commercial real estate, to those banks that were addicted to it, like kids on a sugar high. Few banks were wholly untouched by the carnage; even the biggest players, like Citigroup (C), Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and Bank of America (BAC), hardly escaped unscathed.
Read More...
-
Posted
May 19 2009, 04:07 PM
by
John Reese
Rating:
Money Blog: Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money
Warren Buffett has been putting his money where his mouth is, with new regulatory filings showing that he snatched up a total of about 14 million more shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) and U.S. Bancorp (USB) in the first quarter -- two stocks he talked up quite a bit during Berkshire Hathaway's recent annual meeting.
Interestingly, the Guru Strategy computer model I base on Buffett's approach isn't high on Wells or U.S. Bancorp right now. Their long-term earnings histories are too inconsistent, their use of retained earnings have been weak, and their profitability has been inconsistent. In fact, none of my guru-based models like Wells or U.S. Bancorp.
I have, however, found one intriguing bank play that my Buffett model (up 15.9% this year) is quite high on. It's one that I think Buffett might like to own, but simply can't. You, however, can.
Read More...
More Posts Next page »
|
