J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $63 - New York symbol JPM

J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $63 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 3.7 billion; Market cap: $233.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.5; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.jpmorganchase.com) earned $5.9 billion in the three months ended March 31, 2015, up 12.2% from $5.3 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 13.2%, to $1.45 from $1.28, on fewer shares outstanding. Without unusual items, Morgan earned $1.58 a share in the latest quarter. Revenue rose 4.1%, to $24.8 billion from $23.9 billion.

Most of these gains came from the bank’s securities-trading division, where earnings jumped 19.4% on stronger volumes. It also saw higher fee income from advising firms on mergers.

These increases helped offset slower growth in retail banking. Low interest rates continue to spur loan demand, but Morgan is earning less interest on the money it lends. At the same time, it has to pay more to attract depositors.

The bank set aside $959 million to cover bad loans, up 12.8% from $850 million a year ago. That’s mainly because it took back just $93 million of the funds it had previously set aside for loan losses, compared to $419 million in the year-earlier quarter.

J.P. Morgan Chase is a buy.

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