J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $34 - New York symbol JPM

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $34 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.9 billion; Market cap: $132.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.3; Dividend yield: 2.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jpmorganchase.com) is one of the world’s largest financial-services companies, with 5,400 retail bank branches in the U.S. It also offers credit cards, wealth-management and investment-banking services. In the three months ended September 30, 2011, Morgan earned $4.3 billion, down 3.5% from $4.4 billion a year earlier. However, earnings per share rose 1.0%, to $1.02 from $1.01, on fewer shares outstanding. If you exclude unusual items, such as costs to settle lawsuits related to subprime mortgages, Morgan would have earned $0.97 a share in the latest quarter. Revenue fell 0.3%, to $23.76 billion from $23.82 billion. Loan-loss provisions fell 25.2%, to $2.4 billion from $3.2 billion. However, the latest figure is up from $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2011. The stock trades at just 7.4 times Morgan’s likely 2011 earnings of $4.59 a share. That low p/e ratio reflects slowing earnings at the company’s securities-trading operations, plus falling advisory fees as business clients focus on managing their current operations instead of pursuing acquisitions. The $1.00 dividend still seems safe, and yields 2.9%. J.P. Morgan is still a hold.

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