Big US investors are highly confident on financial stocks in the lately completed quarter and expect to lead the sector, which has been a basket case for a number of years. No other sector has been as overwhelmed by bad news as the banks, where a scandal appears to erupt monthly, be it JPMorgan Chase’s “London Whale” trading loss or allegations that Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) rigged the short-term LIBOR rate.
At the same time, banks have been the top gainers in the S&P 500 this year, catching the attention of prominent hedge fund managers and big investment firms betting their shares are still undervalued because of the risk of bad headlines and the uncertain U.S. economy.
In the last trading session, shares of Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) surged 0.73% and closed at $29.03 after Nomura maintained its buy rating on the stock. The overall traded volume was 27.36 million shares. Citigroup has earnings per share of $3.45 with the net profit margin of 14.19% and operating margin of 18.25%. Its price to earnings ratio stands at 8.40.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) fell -0.32% to close at $36.98 after raising 1.5 billion Euros from the sale of 10-Year bonds. Its overall traded volume during last trading session was 17.08 million shares compared to the average volume of 31.95 million. It has market capitalization of 140.48 billion.
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) dropped -0.29% with the closing price of $34.03 even after it was ranked among the world’s ‘safest’ banks. The overall volume in the last trading session was 16.93 million shares. Its fifty two week range was $22.61-$34.80. The total market capitalization remained $179.75 billion.
WFC is ahead of its 52 week low 53.88% and its last month price volatility remained 1.53%. Its beta coefficient was 1.32 with a target price of $38.55. In its share capital WFC has 5.28 billion outstanding shares while 5.28 billion shares have been floated in the market. WFC has insider ownership of 0.01% with its institutional ownership remaining at 77.97%.
In the last trading session, shares of KeyCorp (NYSE:KEY) moved up 0.36% and closed at $8.36 with the overall traded volume of 14.01 million shares. KEY has earnings per share of $0.89 with the net profit margin of 21.67% and operating margin of 28.98%. Its price to earnings ratio stands at 9.35.