Posts for Ticker ‘FITB’

Paulson Takes Huge Stake In Citigoup, Dumps Goldman

Money ImageJohn Paulson is rather notorious, and wealthy, for how much he picked up by shorting financial stocks on the way down.  But the financial world found out in August that Paulson & Co. had bought up many key financial and banking stocks.  Paulson & Co. Inc. is out with a 13-F filing after the close showing he is still in many key financial stocks.

The famed hedge fund manager took a massive stake in Citigroup and sold his entire interest in Goldman Sachs

  • Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) was listed as 159,794,229 shares, down from 167,990,464 shares.
  • Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) was static as a stake of 17,000,000 shares of common stock.
  • Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) is listed as 300,000,000 (three-hundred million) of common stock.
  • Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) was static as a 5,000,000 share stake.
  • First Horizon National Corp. (NYSE: FHN) was 7.11 million, up from a stake of 3,000,000 shares in August.
  • JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was down to 2,000,000 shares, down from an August stake of 7,000,000 shares of common stock.
  • Marshall & Ilsley Corp. (NYSE: MI) was static at 12,000,000 shares of common stock.
  • People’s United Financial Inc. (NASDAQ: PBCT) was static at 2,750,000 shares of common stock.
  • Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF) was static at 35,000,000 shares of common stock.
  • SunTrust Bank Inc. (NYSE: STI) was static at 1,500,000 shares of common stock.

We had also noted back in October how Conseco, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) had scored a Paulson investment.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was NOT in the new filing compared to the August filing where he listed 2,000,000 shares of common stock in the August filing.  State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT) was NOT in the filing versus a stake of 700,000 shares of common stock in August.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: November 13, 2009 – 5:50 pm in Activist Investor, Banking, Financial Stocks, , , , , , , , , , , ,

9 Of 10 Bank Holding Companies Make The Cut

Yesterday, the Federal Reserve reported that 9 out of 10 bank holding companies that were required to raise additional capital to bolster their balance sheets have successfully done so.  The Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP) had determined in May that these needed to raise $74.6 billion by November 9th.  This was achieved through new issuance of equity in the amount of $39 billion, conversion of existing preferred equity to common equity amounting to $23 billion, and the sale businesses and assets amounting to 9$ billion.  The ten bank holding companies that were required to raise additional capital were: Banks of America (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), GMAC LLC, KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), PNC Financial Services (NYSE: PNC), Regions Financial (NYSE: RF), SunTrust (NYSE: STI), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC).

Of the ten the one laggard was GMAC, which failed to raise the necessary funds.  The May SCAP report indicated that GMAC needed to buffer its balance sheet with an additional $11.5 billion in Tier 1 capital.  The Federal Reserve expects the troubled mortgage and auto loan originator to fill in its funding gap by accessing the TARP Automotive Industry Financing Program.

Garrett W. McIntyre

Posted on: November 10, 2009 – 9:08 am in Banking, Financial Stocks, , , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (MT, BMRN, ELN, FITB, FSLR, GCI, GT, HAL, PVTB, URBN)

These are this Thursday morning’s top 10 analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen in early research calls from Wall Street:

ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT) Raised to Buy at Societe Generale.
BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Elan Corp. plc (NYSE: ELN) Cut to Neutral at UBS.
Fifth Third Bancorp Raised To Outperform From Neutral By Baird
First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ: FSLR) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
Gannett Co. (NYSE: GCI) Cut to Underperform at Wells Fargo.
Goodyear Tire (NYSE: GT) Cut to Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
Halliburton Co. (NYSE: HAL) Started as Outperform at Wells Fargo.
PrivateBancorp Inc. (NASDAQ: PVTB) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ: URBN) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: October 29, 2009 – 7:45 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (FITB, STI, CIT, AMZN, BCRX, LM)

This morning you are getting the broader summaries without links to VSInvestor.com because of an issue at the hosting and publishing side that has caused a temporary outage.  Here are brief morning movers:

Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) and SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) are both getting hit this morning on an analyst downgrade by Dick Bove.  Rochdale Securities has downgraded the bank to Sell from an already cautious Neutral rating.  At 8:20 AM EST we have seen STI shares down over 2.5% at $20.45 on about 10,000 shares and FITB is down over 4% at $9.92 on 65,000 shares. STI trades about 9.7 million shares per day and and FITB trades about 22 million shares per day.

CIT Group, Inc. (NYSE: CIT) is trading up this morning on news that could ultimately be bad for shareholders.  CIT has amended its debt offering terms under a packaged bankruptcy reorganization.  CIT is up 3.5% at $1.18 on over 400,000 shares of stock at 8:26 AM EST.  As a reminder, CIT was under fire on Friday by a Carl Icahn open letter to bondholders calling that the value of the bonds could be Par (100 cents on the dollar).  CIT trades close to 90 million shares per day and where this one closes today is anyone’s guess as of now.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) rose almost $25.00 on Friday on over 58 million shares when you include the pre-open and after-hours trading volume.   Average volume here is about 7 million shares.  And this morning at 8:30 AM EST we have shares up another 1.8% at $120.60 on right at 300,000 shares.  This will mark new 52-week highs  as the high on Friday was $119.65.  Bezos always wanted to build a rocket ship, and his stock is acting like one.

BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCRX) is surging on H1N1 news this morning.  The company’s intravenous experimental drug called peramivir received an “emergency use authorization” by the FDA as a swine flu treatment  from the Food and Drug Administration as a swine flu treatment in hospitals for thoise with or suspected of having swine flu.

Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE: LM) is indicated higher.  Billionaire investor Nelson Peltz will join the asset management firm’s board after his investment firm has now taken a 4.3% stake in the company.  This investment is via Peltz’s Trian investment group.  3.6% at $33.05, but volume is still very thin as this is a listed stock under an NYSE specialist.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

Jon C. Ogg
October 26, 2009

Posted on: October 26, 2009 – 9:10 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (BHP, DFG, FITB, GNTX, HRB, INTU, POT, RTP, RVBD, STI)

These are this Monday’s top ten analyst calls from Wall Street for upgrades, downgrades, and initiations:

BHP Billiton (NYSE: BHP) Started as Neutral at HSBC.
Delphi Financial (NYSE: DFG) Started as Outperform at KBW.
Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Rochdale.
Gentex (NASDAQ: GNTX) Raised to Outperform at Wells Fargo.
H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) Started as Overweight at Barclays.
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT) Started as Buy at Genuity.
Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RTP) Started as Neutral at HSBC.
Riverbed Technology (NASDAQ: RVBD) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI) Cut to Sell from Neutral at Rochdale.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates on top analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s, secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG
OCTOBER 26, 2009

Posted on: October 26, 2009 – 8:14 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

CIT (NYSE:CIT) Closer to Bankrutcy

bearInvestors who have dumped CIT (NYSE:CIT) stock since September 29 are looking smart. The shares have dropped from $1.67 on the 29th to $1.04.

It appears that debtholders of paper from the lender to medium-sized businesses may let it go into bankruptcy. CIT management will try to make this a pre-packaged bankruptcy so that the firm can keep operating and get financing to continue, but, according to Reuters, debtholders may fight that. Read More »

Posted on: October 13, 2009 – 5:42 am in Banking, Bankruptcy, , , ,

Very Mixed Analyst Calls in Financial Stocks (GS, MS, BBT, CMA, FITB, PNC, PRSP, STI, WFC)

We are seeing a very mixed picture among the analyst calls this morning over banks and financial stocks.  We are seeing some very positive “BUY” calls and we are also seeing some new “SELL” calls.

Goldman Sachs (GS) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Morgan Stanley (MS) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
BB&T (BBT) Started as Sell at UBS.
Comerica (CMA) Started as Sell at UBS
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Started as Sell at UBS.
PNC Financial (PNC) Started as Sell at UBS.
Prosperity Bancshares (PRSP) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
SunTrust (STI) Started as Sell at UBS.
Wells Fargo (WFC) Started as Sell at UBS.

You can join our open email distribution list to get updates each morning on analyst upgrades and downgrades, top day trader alerts, IPO’s and secondary offerings, Warren Buffett and other guru activity, M&A and more.

JON C. OGG

October 8, 2009

Posted on: October 8, 2009 – 7:30 am in Analyst Calls, Banking, Brokerage Firms, Financial Stocks, , , , , , , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (FOLD, BRCD, COF, FITB, SCLN, TRID, WFC)

These are this morning’s top day trader alerts and active trader alert stocks for Monday.  We have more details on volume and price analysis on each stock covered at VSInvestor.com:

Amicus Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FOLD) is hitting 52-week lows on its type 1 Gaucher disease treatment disappointment.

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRCD) is trading up over 13% after the company has reportedly up for sale.

Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF) and Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB) are both higher despite Goldman Sachs dropping FITB in favor of COF for its Conviction Buy List.

SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SCLN) is down 7% but not as bad as it could have been after dropping its Phase 2 trial evaluating RP101 for late-stage pancreatic cancer.

Trident Microsystems Inc. (NASDAQ: TRID) is surging on higher guidance and an NXP combination of their digital TV and Set-Top box businesses.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) is up over 4% on the Goldman Sachs upgrade.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for reminders of the top day trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG
October 5, 2009

Posted on: October 5, 2009 – 9:10 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (AMD, FOLD, AMAG, FITB, PLCM, TIVO)

These are this Monday morning’s top early-bird analyst downgrades or cautious research calls from Wall Street firms:

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Cut to Market Perform at FBR.
Amicus Therapeutics (FOLD) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan
AMAG Pharmaceuticals (AMAG) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Cut to Buy from Conviction Buy List at Goldman Sachs.
Polycom (PLCM) Cut to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
TiVo (TIVO) Started as Neutral at JPMorgan.

You can join our open email distribution list which goes out several times per week for top day trader alerts, analyst upgrades and downgrades, IPO’s, key secondary offerings, guru investor data on Buffett and others, mergers, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: October 5, 2009 – 7:17 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , ,

Paulson, Esteemed Bank Short Seller, Now Long Financials (BAC, COF, GS, JPM, FITB, FHN, MI, PBCT, SKF, RF, STT, STI)

John Paulson has been well known as a hedge fund manager because of the profits he made from short selling many of the key financial stocks.  Yet his new filing shows a large long position as of the quarter-end June 30, 2009. For example, it lists a huge stake in Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC).  There were many smaller company stakes, but some of the medium-sized stakes (for Paulson that is) are in Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM).  Below are the rest of his financial holdings: Read More »

Posted on: August 12, 2009 – 5:11 pm in Activist Investor, Banking, Financial Stocks, Insider Activity, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (CHK, DD, FIG, FITB, KIND, MMC, MINI, STI, UNTD, VCLK)

These are the top ten pre-market analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations from Wall Street research this Thursday morning:

Chesapeake Energy (CHK) Cut to Hold at Argus.
DuPont (DD) Raised to Perform at Oppenheimer.
Fortress Investment Group (FIG) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
Kindred Healthcare (KIND) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
March & McLennan (MMC) Raised to Market Perform at KBW.
Mobile Mini (MINI) Cut to Hold at Needham.
SunTrust (STI) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
United Online (UNTD) Cut to Hold at Jefferies.
ValueClick (VCLK) Raised to Buy at Merriman Curhan Ford.

JON C. OGG
AUGUST 6, 2009

Posted on: August 6, 2009 – 7:51 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

The Best Short-Selling Opportunities Of The Year (C)(GE)(F)(SBUX)(SIRI)

angrybearThere is still some conversation about the federal government restricting short-selling activity in certain stocks. The counterargument to these restrictions is that short selling plays an important role in the valuation of securities by efficiently allowing investors to bet that a stock will fall as readily as they can bet that it will rise. Short sellers have the reputation, whether deserved or not, for trying to manipulate information about public companies with the hope of driving their prices down. That may be true.

24/7 Wall St. has come up with a list of the best short-selling opportunities between now and the end of the year. The list was chosen based on: 1) trading volume, 2) the total short position in the stock over the first half of the year, 3) a history of the short position in these stocks rising or falling rapidly, and 4) stocks in companies that tend to move on news throughout the year and not just on earnings information. Read More »

Posted on: July 5, 2009 – 5:54 pm in Airlines, Analyst Calls, Autos, Banking, Biotech, Casinos, Conglomerates, Consumer Electronics, Dividend, Drug companies, Editor's Picks, FDA, Green Biz, Hardware, Healthcare, Infrastructure, Internet, Large Cap Stocks, Medical, PC Companies, Pharmaceuticals, Private Equity, Retail, Short Interest, Software, Technology, Turnarounds, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

S&P Looking For More Bank Losses (WFC, CMA, USB, BBT, RF, COF, FITB, HBAN, SNV, WTNY, FAS)

burning-money-picStandard & Poor’s may still have at least some relevance in its debt ratings.  This morning we saw a wave of downgrades at banks by the debt ratings agency on systematic-risk and non-systematic risk.   We tried to shorten this up to the most concise report in rating groups as this is hitting many of the bank stocks pretty hard this morning. Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), Comerica (NYSE: CMA), USBancorp (NYSE: USB), BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), Regions Financial Corp. (NYSE: RF), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Fifth Third Bancorp (NASDAQ: FITB), Huntington Bancshares Inc. (NASDAQ: HBAN), Synovus Financial Corp. (NYSE: SNV) and Whitney Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: WTNY) were all in the wave of S&P downgrades.  This news has the extremely volatile Direxion Daily Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) triple leverage financial sector ETF down 7% at $8.60.
Read More »

Posted on: June 17, 2009 – 11:40 am in Analyst Calls, Banking, Financial Stocks, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Stress Test Results, Bank by Bank (AXP, BBT, BAC, COF, C, FITB, GS, JPM, KEY, MET, MS, PNC, RF, STT, STI, USB, WFC)

Finally, the stress tests are out for the US banking and financial institutions.  Of the banks, 10 of 19 banks need a combined $74 billion of equity.The good news is that a few companies were given essentially a clean bill of health, such as American Express Company (AXP), BB&T Corp. (BBT), Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (BK), Capital One Financial Corp. (COF), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), MetLife, Inc. (MET), State Street Corp. (STT), and USBancorp (USB).

We have broken these down in a single unified and summarized report that shows each bank or financial institution along with an estimated market cap to show what the capital requirements are as far as what each bank will need to raise versus what shareholders already have at stake.   We summarized the list below, and be advised that the tier 1 capital is the total tier 1 capital rather than the Tier 1 Common Capital.  Also be advised that the SCAP BUFFER is the term used for the capital needed to be raised, and that is inclusive of capital raised and from infusions.
Read More »

Posted on: May 7, 2009 – 4:59 pm in Banking, Financial Stocks, Regulation, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (BAC, CTRP, ENOC, FITB, RTP, THQI, USM)

These are some of the top pre-market analyst upgrades or positive research calls from Wall Street this Thursday morning:

Bank of America (BAC) Raised to Outperform at Baird; Raised to Overweight at Morgan Stanley.
Ctrip.com (CTRP) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
EnerNOC (ENOC) Raised to Buy at Janney Montgomery.
Fifth Third Bank (FITB) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Rio Tinto PLC (RTP) Raised to Overweight at Barclays.
THQ Inc. (THQI) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
US Cellular (USM) Raised to Neutral at Baird.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: May 7, 2009 – 6:16 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , ,

Ten Women Who Should Be Big Company CEOs

jp-morganTwelve of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women. Just twelve. Over the next year, that number is likely to go up considerably because of a confluence of economic and financial factors that have not existed in years. The first of those is that because of the economy there will probably be higher turnover rates of chief executives at large companies. Next, there are a relatively large number of extremely talented women in the tier of senior management just below the CEO level.  Many of these women who are in the No.2 or No.3 spots at their firms are the same age or older than their current CEOs.  It is then very unlikely that they will become CEO at their current firm. Read More »

Posted on: May 6, 2009 – 8:46 pm in Airlines, Banking, Management Change, Retail, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Rumors The Ten Of 19 Banks Failed “Stress Tests” (WFC)(BAC)(C)

bank4Several news organizations are reporting that ten of the 19 banks subjected to “stress tests” will be asked to raise more capital. Since the firms are still debating with the government, the number could change. It is not clear whether the problem can be solved, at last at some of the banks, by converting preferred shares to common, which would cause significant dilution for existing shareholders.

Among the largest banks on the list of those that will need new capital are Bank of America (BAC), Citigroup (C), and Wells Fargo (WFC). Read More »

Posted on: May 5, 2009 – 4:35 am in Banking, , , , , ,

Government Moves Toward Releasing Detailed Stress Test Results

newspaper2Shares in some large banks are about to plunge. Reuters reports that “U.S. officials are leaning towards announcing the `stress test’ results of individual banks next week instead of just summary results.” That is likely to cause an exodus from the stocks of the firms that do badly, which may be to the government’s advantage. Read More »

Posted on: May 1, 2009 – 4:51 am in Banking,

Regions Financial (RF), Fifth Third (FITB), And Keycorp (KEY) Are Probably Banks That Failed Stress Test

angrybear2Experts have told The Wall Street Journal that they think several of the banks which failed the government’s stress tests are in the Midwest and Southeast. According to the paper, “Three people familiar with the matter said at least three banks are in this position.”

Depending which states are included in those “regions”, the list of possible financial firms on the government’s list would be between six and eight. Read More »

Posted on: April 25, 2009 – 8:59 am in Banking, , ,

Top Analyst Downgrades (AKS, AFL, CMA, DT, FDX, HAL, FITB, KEY, HOT)

burning-money-pic19These are some of the top pre-market analyst downgrades and negative calls we have seen from Wall Street firms with about two hours until the market open this Wednesday morning:

AK Steel (AKS) Cut to Sell at UBS.
AFLAC (AFL) Cut to Underweight at Barclays.
Comerica (CMA) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Deutsche Telekom (DT) was downgraded at both Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan after this week’s warning.
FedEx (FDX) Raised to Neutral at BofA-Merrill.
Halliburton (HAL) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays.
Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) Cut to Market Perform at BMO.
KeyCorp (KEY) Cut to Hold at Citigroup.
Starwood Hotels (HOT) Cut to Neutral at Baird.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: April 22, 2009 – 6:45 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,