Tag Archives: C

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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JPMorgan posts record profit of $6.5B. JPMorgan’s (JPM) net income rose to a record $6.5B in Q1 from $4.9B a year earlier as EPS of $1.59 beat forecasts, but revenue slipped to $25.8B from $26.8B and missed consensus. Earnings received an $0.18-a-share benefit from reduced loan-loss reserves in mortgages and credit cards, but the business of banking – loan growth – slowed “across the industry.” Shares were -0.6% premarket.

JAB to buy DE Master Blenders for €7.5B. A consortium led by Joh A Benckise (JAB) has agreed to acquire Dutch Sara Lee spin-off D.E. Master Blenders 1753 for €12.50 a share in a deal that values the maker of Douwe Egberts coffee and Pickwick tea at €7.5B. The price is lower than the €12.75 mentioned when the sides first disclosed talks about a transaction in March. The purchase would add to JAB’s stakes in Peet’s


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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PC shipments plunge. Global PC shipments slumped 13.9% on year to 76.9M units in Q1, estimates IDC, which blamed the introduction of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows 8 for the drop. “The Windows 8 launch not only didn’t provide a positive boost to the PC market, but appears to have slowed (it down),” IDC said. H-P (HPQ) was the market leader even though its share fell to 15.7%, while Lenovo (LNVGY.PK) came in at number two and Dell (DELL) at number three.

Japanese car makers recall 3.4M vehicles. Four Japanese car makers have recalled 3.4M vehicles globally due to a malfunctioning inflator in the front-seat airbags, which are made by Takata (TKTDF.PK), although no injuries or deaths have been reported. Toyota (TM) is recalling 1.73M cars, Honda (HMC) 1.14M, Nissan (NSANY.OB) 480,000 and Mazda (MZDAY.PK) 45,500. Takata’s shares slumped 9% in Tokyo, although Toyota’s rose 2.5%


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Buying Brand Names In A Bear Market Can Make You Rich

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ByZinnia Funds:

By Clint Harritt, Managing Partner,
Zinnia Funds

More than 100 years ago, Jon Stuart, Chairman of Quaker Oats Company (maker of breakfast cereals), made an astute comment that still holds true today, “If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than you,” he said. What he meant is that the Quaker Oats brand name was worth more than any other component of the business. While this might seem hard to imagine, the same holds true for many other companies and their brands.

By taking advantage of cheap stocks with nationally recognizable brands, you can achieve annual returns better than Warren Buffett without doing the long and painful research on corporate balance sheets and cash flow statements. Buffet, himself, had annual returns similar to this strategy in his early


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Citigroup’s Goal To Return As A Dividend Growth Story

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By Todd Johnson:

Citigroup, Inc. (C) continues to take proactive strategic actions to return to a dividend growth story. The road will be bumpy. Michael Corbat, CEO, leads the corporate structure to clean up the balance sheet and decrease expenses. Management has plenty of work to do. Management must continue to reduce non-essential employees, decrease non-core expenses, and commit resources to core profit business segments. I’ll focus upon why I believe Citigroup is on the road again to be a dividend growth story.

C data by YCharts

Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat Presents at the Citi 2013 Presentation

On March 5th, Mr. Corbat stated a clear goal to “accelerate (Citi Holdings) dispositions if or when economically rational.” Citi Holdings has been a thorn in the side of the bank.

(click to enlarge)

The presentation focused upon business execution, management’s plans to dispose of business units when the values are appropriate. The


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Verizon, AT&T eye $245B break-up bid for Vodafone – FT. Verizon Communications (VZ) and AT&T (T) have reportedly been working on a $245B bid for Vodafone (VOD) whereby Verizon would realize its long-held dream of gaining full control of Verizon Wireless and AT&T would obtain Vodafone’s non U.S. assets. “Usually reliable people” tell the FT that Verizon and AT&T could offer 260 pence a share in what would be the biggest takeover in history. Vodafone shares were +4.6% at 195 pence at midday in London.

AstraZeneca suffers patent blow. A New Jersey district court has ruled that a patent protecting AstraZeneca’s (AZN) billion-dollar Pulmicort Repsules asthma treatment is invalid, opening the way for Actavis (ACT) to launch a generic version. The ruling won’t affect AstraZeneca’s 2013 revenue guidance, but it will hurt royalties that the company receives from Teva’s (TEVA) version of Pulmicort.


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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BOE: British banks must raise extra £25B by year-end. U.K. banks must raise another £25B by the year-end to protect themselves from potential losses, the Bank of England has said, with the sector facing a total capital shortfall of £50B. The news helped send the FTSE, U.S. stock futures and the pound-dollar lower, although Barclays (BCS) and Lloyds (LYG) were higher at midday in London. HSBC (HBC) and RBS (RBS) were down.

Citigroup mulls slashing liquidity by $35B. Citigroup (C) is thinking about cutting its cash on hand by $35B, which could help the bank boost its earnings 2% this year by allowing it to cut debt or purchase higher-yielding assets. Even after reducing its available capital, Citigroup’s liquidity would still be 10% more than will be required under Basel III.

Cyprus works to avert run on banks. Cyprus has been preparing capital controls to


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5 Stocks With Solid Upside Well Positioned To Rally

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By David Alton Clark:

The Gist

At the beginning of the year I chose five stocks I thought were poised for solid upside in 2013. The stocks have performed well so far and I posit they have much more room to run. The stocks are up 10% on average for the first quarter with Citigroup, Inc. (C) performing the best, up 15.68%, and Ford Motor Co. (F) the worst, but not bad, up 2.33%.

The stocks covered in this article are buying opportunities with positive momentum and catalysts for upside in 2013. I posit each of them has robust catalysts for growth combined with notable upside going forward. Nevertheless, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Please review the following analysis of these stocks to determine if now is the right time to start a position.

The Goods

In the following sections we will perform a review of the fundamental and technical state


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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

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Cyprus seeks salvation in Russia and the Church. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has been holding emergency meetings with party leaders and troika representatives after the country’s parliament rejected a proposal to tax bank deposits as part of an EU bailout. Salvation could come from Cyprus’s orthodox church, which has offered to mortgage its considerable assets in order to invest in government bonds. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Michael Sarris is in Moscow to see if he can get a deal out of the Russians.

American Realty offers $5.7B for Cole Credit Property Trust. American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP) has offered to acquire Cole Credit Property Trust for $5.7B in cash and stock, or over $9B including debt, in a deal that would create the biggest publicly traded REIT in the net lease sector. American Realty has also asked Cole to end the purchase of its external adviser, Cole


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