Hold on to these two banks for now

Article Excerpt

The improving economy is helping more consumers repay their loans on time. That’s pushing down loan losses at J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. However, high unemployment is hurting loan demand, and the government is introducing new banking regulations. That will weigh on both banks’ short-term profits. J.P. MORGAN CHASE & CO. $36 (New York symbol JPM; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 4.0 billion; Market cap: $144.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 0.6%; WSSF Rating: Average) is one of the world’s largest financial-services companies, with over 5,100 branches in the U.S. Aside from retail banking, Morgan offers credit cards, wealth-management and investment-banking services. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, Morgan earned $4.8 billion, or $1.09 a share. The company is setting aside less money to cover bad loans. As a result, loan-loss provisions fell 58.1%, to $3.4 billion from $8.0 billion, including a $1.5-billion reversal of earlier provisions. This one-time item added $0.36 a share to Morgan’s latest…