Banking

Travis Perkins was at the top of the iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF on October 23, 2015, as analysts showed positivity toward the construction industry.

According to Reuters, Facebook (FB) is currently in discussions with banks about improving customer service through its apps.

The bank has always focused on its bread and butter revenue-earning stream: loans. Over the years, Wells Fargo slowly realized its goal of achieving a strong market share in lending.

Asset managers (VFH) are seeking stability in order to attract funds toward either equity or debt offerings.

In a Bloomberg survey of 37 analysts, 19 analysts (51%) have assigned a “buy” rating to Wells Fargo (WFC) while 13 (35%) have rated it as “hold.” The stock currently has five “sell” ratings.

The first challenge is that banks are highly regulated and any change in regulations has a huge impact on the valuation of a bank—the second challenge is that it’s difficult to determine cash flow for a bank because both debt and reinvestment are difficult to calculate.

The US economy has been improving gradually, but some businesses in the US have suffered a lot over the years.

On April 13, JPMorgan Chase reported 1Q16 earnings of $1.35 per share. It beat consensus estimates of $1.28. Its shares rallied 4.2% after the earnings beat.

Changes in technology have reshaped the banking sector. Banks are increasingly collaborating with fintech firms to improve their customer service.

The SPDR Euro Stoxx 50 ETF (FEZ) is a US exchange-traded ETF that tracks the performance of the 50 largest companies across the Eurozone.

Maintaining a high net interest margin has always been part of Wells Fargo’s (WFC) strategy. Wells Fargo has consistently been better than the industry’s average net interest margin.

Broadcom’s (AVGO) fiscal 2019 first-quarter revenue is expected to be hit by declines in Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone sales and a slowdown in spending by hyperscale cloud customers.

We explored the most commonly used valuation metric for financial companies—the price-book value. We also understood the relation between price-book value and return on equity.

Chevron and ExxonMobil stocks have provided almost flat returns in the current quarter. As a result, Goldman Sachs favors Chevron over ExxonMobil.

AMFQX is an alternative mutual fund that seeks to generate positive absolute returns with a low correlation to the returns of broad stock and bond markets.

During 4Q14, Citadel Advisors started a new position in Altera Corporation (ALTR).

Paul Singer, the CEO of Elliott Management, increased his holdings in NXP Semiconductor (NXPI) in 3Q17, according to a recent 13F filing report.

Charles Schwab (SCHW) has a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.80x on an NTM (next-12-month) basis.

PayPal reported that its payment transaction per active account increased 12.0% year-over-year in 1Q17.

As of June 30, 11 fallen angel companies had issued tender offers YTD, boosting their bond prices by 5% on average.

Dimensional Fund Advisors’ top buys are Apple (AAPL), AT&T (T), Microsoft (MSFT), L3Harris Technologies (LHX), and Verizon Communications (VZ).

Berkowitz believes that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac entities are highly valuable and expects them to generate earnings of at least~$21 billion a year.

MLPs’ sluggishness continued last week despite strong crude oil. The Alerian MLP Index (^AMZ), which tracks the performance of 50 energy MLPs, fell 1.2% last week.

Among MLP funds, exchange-traded notes fell the most while the exchange-traded funds declined the least.

The financial sector has contributed heavily to the UK economy. Financial institutions like HSBC and Barclays will face challenges doing business in the EU.

The Swedish krona gained by more than 1.5% against the US dollar and 1.0% against the euro on September 11, 2015, as the economy grew at a faster rate than expected in 2Q15.

Of the 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, only five issued “buy” recommendations for Joy Global, while 11 issued “holds,” and one issued a “sell.”

MLP-focused funds underperformed the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) in the recent quarter.

Bond underwriting exposure could be risky for investment banking departments, as interest rates begin to rise and refinancing slows.

Worsening economic conditions in Brazil and Venezuela hit economic growth in Latin America in the first quarter of 2015.

BB&T Corporation’s (BBT) operations are divided into six business segments. Community Banking contributes 46% to the total revenue.

MLPs recovered slightly in the week ending August 25—possibly due to an overcorrection in the first three weeks of the month.

Shares of Deutsche Bank (DB) have fallen nearly 10% in the last three trading sessions. Efforts to reassure investors about its ability to pay coupons on its AT1 bonds were in vain.

Flows into investment-grade bond funds were positive for the week ending on October 14 after witnessing four consecutive weeks of outflows.

Last week, CNBC said that WeWork (WE) is firing 2,400 people. Supposedly, this will “create a more efficient organization.”

In this series, we’ll compare Bank of America and J.P. Morgan on the basis of their 2Q earnings, profitability, cost-cutting initiatives, and interest rate sensitivities.

Among the downstream solar companies, SolarCity (SCTY) has the highest EV-to-sales value of 8.70x, which is closely followed by Vivint Solar at 8.31x.

If a bank is able to keep its cost of deposits low, it will have a competitive advantage. Wells Fargo has the lowest cost of deposits among its peers—despite having a very high deposit base.

Under the current uncertain economic circumstances, investors searching for higher yield might turn to fixed income.

In 2017, Softbank (SFTBY) created a pool of $100 billion to promote new business ventures. The company provided seed funding to entrepreneurs worldwide.