Posts for Ticker ‘STI’

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Holdings P-Z Q3-2009 (BRK-A, BRK-B, PG, RSG, SNY, STI, TMK, TRV, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC, WBC)

This is the list of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) public US equity holdings as of September 30, 2009.  As noted in the “A to F” and “G to O” lists, there have been changes since the cut off date and those have been noted where applicable. Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, the same as before.
  • Republic Services Inc. (NYSE: RSG) 3.625 million shares; NEW POSITION following Bill Gates.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) 3.079 million shares; DOWN FROM 3.2+ the quarter before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • Travellers Cos (NYSE: TRV) 27,336; NEW POSITION but small.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million; Same as quarter before.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 3.4 million shares; DOWN from 4.5 million last quarter and down from over 6 million in Q1.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, same as quarter before but this does not matter as Buffett is dumping his non-BNSF rail holdings.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) 37.8 million; WAY UP from the 19.9+ million shares last quarter.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) 313.3 million shares; ABOVE THE PRIOR 302+ million last quarter and above the 290+ million in Q1.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 3.394 million; DOWN SLIGHTLY from the 3.5 million last quarter and from the 4.7773 million in Q1.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) IS GONE after being 2.7 million shares last quarter.

BUFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to F’

BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘G to O’

You can join our open email distribution list to hear more news on Buffett and other investment gurus, IPOs, secondary offerings, private equity, key analyst calls, and more.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: November 16, 2009 – 5:11 pm in Activist Investor, Buffett, Conglomerates, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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 (COH, ITG, K, LYG, WFR, STI, TWX, TOL, VMW, ZUMZ)

These are this Friday mornings top ten analyst upgrades, downgrades, and initiations of coverage from Wall Street firms:

Coach Inc. (NYSE: COH) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.
Investment Technology Group (NYSE: ITG) Cut to Neutral at JPMorgan.
Kellogg Company (NYSE: K) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Lloyds Banking Group (NYSE: LYG) ADR upgraded at both BNP Paribas and Credit Suisse.
MEMC Electronics (NYSE: WFR) Raised to Buy at Soleil.
SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI) Raised to Equal-Weight at Morgan Stanley.
Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.
Toll Brothers (NYSE: TOL) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
VVMware (NYSE: VMW) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Zumiez (NYSE: ZUMZ) Raised to Buy at Jefferies.

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 30, 2009 – 8:09 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades, Downgrades, Initiations (AKS, APOL, BP, CRDN, RX, SNDK, STI, TGT, TXN, WYNN)

These are this Wednesday’s top 10 seen analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations which we have seen from Wall Street research calls:

AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Apollo Group (NASDAQ: APOL) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
BP plc (NYSE: BP) Cut to Hold at Citigroup; Raised to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
Ceradyne (NASDAQ: CRDN) Raised to Market Perform at Wells Fargo.
IMS Health (NYSE: RX) Cut to Underperform at BofA/Merrill
SanDisk (NASDAQ: SNDK) Cut to Neutral at Goldman Sachs.
SunTrust (NYSE: STI) Raised to “Top Picks” list at Citigroup.
Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) Raised to Buy from Sell at Citigroup.
Texas Instruments (NYSE: TXN) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Wynn Resorts Ltd. (NASDAQ: WYNN) Raised to Outperform at Oppenheimer.

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 28, 2009

Posted on: October 28, 2009 – 7:29 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, , , , , , , , , ,

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 Analyst Downgrades (ALU, CTAS, CCL, CMC, CTV, JNPR, PRU, STI, TLAB)

These are the early analyst downgrades and cautious research calls seen from Wall Street firms this Wednesday morning:

Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) downgraded to Neutral at RW Baird.
Cintas (CTAS) downgraded to Underperform at RW Baird.
Carnival (CCL) downgraded to Neutral at Credit Suisse.
Commercial Metals (CMC) downgraded to Neutral at UBS.
CommScope (CTV) downgraded to Neutral at RW Baird.
Juniper (JNPR) downgraded to Neutral at RW Baird.
Prudential (PRU) downgraded to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley.
SunTrust (STI) Started as Underperform at Wells Fargo
Tellabs (TLAB) downgraded to Neutral at RW Baird.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 23, 2009 – 7:56 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (FWLT, GNW, ITRI, NUE, SPR, SNCR, STI, SYNA, USB, VIA)

These are this Thursday morning’s top analyst upgrades and positive research calls seen from Wall Street:

Foster Wheeler (FWLT) Raised to Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Genworth (GNW) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
Itron (ITRI) Started as Buy at Jefferies.
Nuecor (NUE) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc (SPR) Raised to Conviction Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR) Raised to Overweight at Thomas Weisel.
SunTrust (STI) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
Synaptics (SYNA) Started as Buy at Needham.
USBancorp (USB) Raised to Buy at Rochdale.
Viacom (VIA) Raised to Buy at UBS.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: September 17, 2009 – 8:13 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Q2-2009 Holdings P to Z (BRK-A, PG, SNY, STI, TMK, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WBC, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC)

Buffett ImageBerkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) has released its public stock holdings for Q2-2009 as of June 30, 2009.  Buffett did make some portfolio changes that have been seen here from the end of Q1 and we have broken these down into 3 groups of ‘A to F’ and  ‘G to O’ and ‘P to Z’ so these are easier to see on one page.  Here are Warren Buffett’s holdings and accompanying notes for the group ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, same as before.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, looks same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares, same as before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million is same as before after it had been raised in Q1.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 4.5 million; down from over 6 million.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, same as Q1 after growing the Q1 over Q4 position.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) over 302 million; ABOVE the 290+ million shares the quarter before.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 3.5 million; DOWN from the 4.7773 million shares in Q1.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

BUFETT HOLDINGS ‘A to F’

BUFFETT HOLDINGS ‘G to O’
JON C. OGG
AUGUST 14, 2009

Posted on: August 14, 2009 – 5:22 pm in Buffett, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , , , , , , ,

Top Analyst Upgrades (MT, BBT, EVVV, GHL, WFR, NZ, PBR, SY, STI)

Money Stack ImageThese are the top pre-market analyst upgrades and positive research calls we have seen early this Friday morning with more than two hours until the market opens for trading:

Arcelor Mittal (MT) Raised to Hold at Citigroup.
BB&T Corp. (BBT) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.
ev3 Inc. (EVVV) Started as Outperform at Baird.
Greenhill (GHL) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
MEMC Electronics (WFR) Raised to Buy at Citigroup.
Netezza (NZ) Started as Outperform at William Blair.
Petrobras Brasileiro (PBR) Raised to Buy at UBS.
Sybase (SY) Started as Outperform at Oppenheimer.
SunTrust (STI) Raised to Market Perform at FBR.

JON C. OGG

Posted on: July 10, 2009 – 6:24 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , ,

Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway Q1-2009 Holdings P to Z (BRK-A, PG, SNY, STI, TMK, USB, USG, UNH, UNP, UPS, WBC, WMT, WPO, WFC, WLP, WSC)

Buffett ImageWarren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A)(BRK-B) holdings for the first quarter of 2009 are now out for the cut off date here of March 31, 2009.  There are some changes from the end of Q4 here in banking and here is the list of stocks alphabetically ‘P to Z.’

  • Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) 96.3 million, same as before.
  • Sanofi Aventis (NYSE: SNY) more than 3.9 million shares, looks same as before.
  • Sun Trust Bank (NYSE: STI) more than 3.2 million shares, same as before.
  • Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) roughly 2.82 million, same as before.
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) roughly 69 million; ABOVE last quarter’s 67.6 million.
  • USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) 17.072 million shares, same as before.
  • United Health Group (NYSE: UNH) 4.5 million; down from over 6 million.
  • Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE: UNP) 9.55 million shares, above our 8.9 million noted before.
  • United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) 1.429 million shares, same as before.
  • WABCO Holdings (NYSE: WBC) 2.7 million shares, same as before.
  • Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) over 19.9 million shares, same as before.
  • Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) over 1.72 million shares, same as before.
  • Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) over 302 million; ABOVE the 290+ million shares the quarter before.
  • Wellpoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP) 4.7773 million shares, same as before.
  • Wesco Financial Corp. (NYSE: WSC) 5.7 million shares, same as before.

Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “A to F”
Here is the full list of Buffett holdings “G to O”

Jon C. Ogg
May 15, 2009

Posted on: May 15, 2009 – 4:02 pm in Activist Investor, Banking, Buffett, Buffett Holdings, Conglomerates, Insider Activity, Mutual Funds, Value Investing, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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, , , , , ,

JPMorgan Cuts Banks: Reflections on Its Own Business (JPM, BAC, C, USB, WFC, STI, BRK-A)

burning-money-picJ.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) has issued a negative bank research call for the major money center and super-regional banks this morning.  Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC), Citigroup, Inc. (NYSE: C), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB), Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), SunTrust Banks, Inc. (NYSE: STI), and others were all hit by the note.  Analysts do not actually cover their own companies, but you can’t really get away from the notion that the analyst downgrade also throws JPMorgan under the bus as well.  Do we dare to make the Warren Buffett connection for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) over its financial holdings ahead of its annual shareholder meeting?
Read More »

Posted on: May 1, 2009 – 8:51 am in Analyst Calls, Banking, Buffett, Financial Stocks, , , , , , ,

Early Bird Analyst Calls (BBBY, BBT, FHN, LCAPA, OIIM, RF, STI, UHS)

These are some of the early bird analyst upgrades and downgrades we have seen on Wall Street this Thursday morning ahead of the long weekend:

Bed Bath & Beyond (NASDAQ: BBBY) Cut to Neutral at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
BB&T (NYSE: BBT) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
First Horizon National (NYSE: FHN) Cut to Underperform at KBW.
Liberty Media Capital (NASDAQ: LCAPA) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
O2 Micro (NASDAQ: OIIM) Cut to Underweight at Morgan Stanley.
Regions Financial (NYSE: RF) Cut to Market Perform at KBW.
SunTrust (NYSE: STI) Raised to Outperform at KBW.
Universal Health (NYSE: UHS) Raised to Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Jon C. Ogg

Posted on: April 9, 2009 – 6:19 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , ,