Posts for Ticker ‘USB’

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

Mixed Earnings Picture At Buffett’s Banks (WFC, USB, BRK-A, V)

BuffettImage gates foundationThis morning’s banking reports from Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) might as well be called the Warren Buffett banking reports, or the banking earnings for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A).  Berkshire Hathaway’s ownership in Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was over 302 million shares at the end of June 30, which was above the 290+ million shares the quarter before.  The Berkshire Hathaway ownership in US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was roughly 69 million, effectively the same as the quarter before after it had been raised in Q1.
Read More »

Posted on: October 21, 2009 – 8:33 am in Banking, Buffett, Earnings, Financial Stocks, , , ,

Top Day Trader Alerts (AMR, DRYS, ORCL, RNN, USB, YMI)

These are this Thursday morning’s top pre-market day trader alert and active trader alert stocks moving on unusual trading volume.  We have a link through to more color and analysis on price and volume over at VSInvestor.com on each stock:

AMR Corp. (NYSE: AMR) is now up over 20% on very strong volume after the airliner obtained $2.9 billion in new financing.

DryShips Inc. (NASDAQ: DRYS) is retaking its bullish proxy status and is up again by almost 4%.

Oracle Corp. (NASDAQ: ORCL) is trading lower and has now violated its key 50-day moving average that had acted as key support for the last 60 days or more.

Rexahn Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AMEX: RNN) is surging almost 20% on cancer treatment pact with Teva Pharma…

US Bancorp (NYSE: USB) is not up as much as we would have guessed considering that Rochdale’s Dick Bove raised its rating.

YM BioSciences Inc. (AMEX: YMI) is up almost 20% on an approval for cancer treatment down in Mexico.

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

JON C. OGG
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Posted on: September 17, 2009 – 9:01 am in After-Hours Activity, Pre-Market Activity, Trading Alert, , , , , ,

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

Top 10 Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades (BBBB, CTXS, EXPE, IP, NTAP, NOK, PKG, PETS, TNK, USB)

These are this Tuesday morning’s top ten analyst calls with upgrades, downgrades, and initiations we have seen in early trading from Wall Street firms:

Blackboard (BBBB) Cut to Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
Citrix Systems (CTXS) Cut to Underperform at BofA/Merrill.
Expedia (EXPE) Started as Buy at Deutsche Bank.
International Paper (IP) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
NetApp (NTAP) Raised to Accumulate at ThinkEquity.
Nokia (NOK) Cut to Hold from Buy at Jefferies.
Packaging Corp (PKG) Raised to Buy at Deutsche Bank.
PetMed Express (PETS) Raised to Overweight at Piper Jaffray.
Teekay Tankers (TNK) Raised to Overweight at JP Morgan.
US Bancorp (USB) Started as Outperform at Credit Suisse.

JON C. OGG
JULY 21, 2009

Posted on: July 21, 2009 – 7:08 am in Analyst Calls, , , , , , , , , ,

Shorts Flee Financials, Attack Industrials And Tech

bearShort sellers jumped out of major financial shares but piled into the stocks for major industrial firms based on data as of June 15. Shorts clearly think the restructuring of the bank industry has taken hold permanently, but that the manufacturing industry is still likely to be troubled.

The short interest in Citigroup (C) dropped 3% to 1.244 billion. Shares sold short in Bank of America (BAC) dropped 20% to 95.5 billion. The short interest in AIG (AIG) fell 4% to 228.7 million shares. Read More »

Posted on: June 25, 2009 – 3:38 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/17/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters:   Obama proposed sweeping reform for financial industry.

Reuters:    A number of large banks repaid TARP. (JPM)(GS)(BBT)(COP)(STT)(AXP)(USB)

Reuters:   Consumer prices show inflation is in check.

Reuters:   China could still be a big buyer of US debt.

Reuters:   NYSE will create a derivatives clearing house. Read More »

Posted on: June 18, 2009 – 3:07 am in Press Digest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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

Short Interest In Banks Plunges

bankThe short interest in most large banks fell very sharply for the period ending May 29, an indication that traders believe that TARP repayments and ongoing strong earnings mean the fate of American financial firms will continue to improve.

Read More »

Posted on: June 10, 2009 – 5:46 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Media Digest 6/10/2009 Reuters, WSJ, NYTimes, FT, Bloomberg

newspaperReuters: The Supreme Court delays  Chrysler deal.

Reuters:   The cleared ten banks to repay TARP include JPMorgan (JPM), Goldmand Sachs (GS), American Express (AXP), Cpaital One(COF), State Street (STT), BBT (BBT), Morgan Stanley (MS), and US Bancorp (USB).

Reuters:   Senate Democrats revealed healthcare bill.

Reuters:   New York Times (NYT) will not close the Boston Globe Read More »

Posted on: June 10, 2009 – 3:02 am in Autos, Banking, Biotech, Brokerage Firms, Compensation, Consumer Electronics, Corporate Governance, Economy, Financial Stocks, Management Change, Oil & Gas, Press Digest, Private Equity, Turnarounds, Wireless, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Getting Out From Under the TARP (AXP, BK, BBT, COF, GS, JPM, STT, USB)

Money Stack ImageThe Treasury is finally allowing some of the TARP recipient banks that posed the least systematic risk to begin repaying the Treasury’s preferred stock funds.  This will get these institutions out from under as much oversight from regulators, but more importantly it will take away the political-risk headlines and will reduce some of the importance over issues such as compensation and total loans.  This list is partial and please be advised that it may change.  We believe that these eight are among the ten banks which will be allowed to buy back the Treasury’s preferred shares:

  • American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP)
  • Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE: BK)
  • BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT)
  • Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF)
  • Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS)
  • JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM)
  • State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT)
  • USBancorp (NYSE: USB)

Read More »

Posted on: June 9, 2009 – 7:55 am in Banking, Financial Stocks, Regulation, , , , , , , ,

Should Banks Exiting TARP Still Pay Dividends to Government? (COF, USB, BK, BBT, STT, GS, MS, JPM, BAC)

Money Stack ImageIt is no secret that the banks that can pay the money back want out from under the Troubled Asset Relief Plan, or the TARP.  It is also no secret that the Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the politicians have not agreed to any terms yet take the TARP monies back from the major money center and larger institutions.  Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), US Bancorp (NYSE: USB), Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK), BB&T Corporation (NYSE: BBT), State Street Corp. (NYSE: STT), Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) are among the larger banks that have said they want to or that have been reported about wanting to pay back those TARP funds immediately.

Even the troubled Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) has had its CEO Ken Lewis say that he wants to pay back the TARP, although the stress tests showed the need for more capital and ‘B of A’ has been raising capital over the last ten days or so.  Where a large dilemma comes up is regarding future dividends and the warrants held by the U.S. government.  Uncle Sam gets paid dividends every quarter from these same institutions, and Uncle Sam also has a 10-year warrant in each of these institutions.  It is very possible that the government wants more than just two quarters of dividends for the capital it put up.
Read More »

Posted on: May 19, 2009 – 1:17 pm in Banking, Bonds, Dividend, Financial Stocks, Politics, Regulation, Secondary Offering, , , , , , , , ,

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

FAS/FAZ Dealing With Billions of Dollars of Securities Sales from Members (FAS, FAZ, BBT, COF, PFG, WFC, USB)

Money Stack ImageThe triple leverage ETF’s, the Direxion Financial Bull 3X Shares (NYSE: FAS) and Direxion Financial Bear 3X Shares (NYSE: FAZ), are perhaps the most volatile of all financial-stock ETF’s.  This morning they are getting to deal with a wave of secondary offerings and capital offerings from constituent member banks and financial firms.  These ETF’s are reacting to major “raising cash” filings and offerings from BB&T Corp. (NYSE: BBT), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE: COF), Principal Financial Group Inc. (NYSE: PFG), Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB).
Read More »

Posted on: May 11, 2009 – 8:50 am in Banking, Dividend, ETF, Financial Stocks, Secondary Offering, , , , , , ,

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

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, , , , , , ,

Short Sellers Abandon Financial Shares, Tech Stocks

r218533_8550254Short sellers are not longer willing to gamble on a collapse in the share prices of America’s largest financial firms. Perhaps they think that the issue of nationalization has largely disappeared, the bank earnings may get better, or that the government’s program to strip them of toxic assets may work.

Based on short selling data as of April 15, the short interest in Wells Fargo (WFC) dropped 11% to 149.8 million shares. Read More »

Posted on: April 26, 2009 – 8:21 am in Banking, Brokerage Firms, Industry, Semiconductors, Short Interest, Technology, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shorts, Back In Financials, Probably Got Buried. Cut Bets On Tech

bear14Short sellers were figuring that after the bank rally late last month, banks shares were likely to give back some gains. That was working until Wells Fargo (WFC) reported that it would have a good Q1, which probably resulted in a huge short squeeze in bank stocks.

As of the last day in March, shares sold short in Citigroup (C) were up 21% from two weeks earlier to 1.2 billion. Shares short in AIG (AIG) rose 54% to 281 million. The short interest in Wells Fargo was up 8% to 168 million. Shares sold short in JP Morgan (JPM) rose 26% to 70 million. The short interest in US Bancorp (USB) was up 18% to 76 million.  Shares short in Fifth Third (FITB) were higher by 22% to 58 million. Read More »

Posted on: April 10, 2009 – 3:02 am in Short Interest, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Citi Discloses New Independent Board Members (C, USB, BOH)

pandit-citi-imageCitigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) has disclosed those four new independent board members that it is nominating for election at the April 21 shareholders’ meeting.  There were reports last week that these would be established and known individuals with deep roots  in the financial community.  These are the individuals named:
Read More »

Posted on: March 16, 2009 – 8:05 am in Banking, Management Change, , ,