The third-quarter earnings season is set to kick off and the big banks are the first group to step into the earnings confessional. JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) will kick things off when both report before the opening bell on October 15. Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C) are both expected to report next week as well.
Over the past year, the financial sector as a whole and the banking industry have both lagged the overall market—at least based on how the Financial Select Sector SPDR (NYSE: XLF) and the SPDR S&P Bank ETF (NYSE: KBE) have performed. The S&P is up 5.5% in the past year while the XLF is 2.55% and the KBE is down 7.43%. With interest rates jumping late last year and now declining, it has been a tough stretch for banks.
Looking at how the individual banks have performed, JPMorgan has kept pace with the S&P, but the other three mentioned above have underperformed the market. Citi is up ever so slightly in the past year and Bank of America is down slightly. Wells is down 3.63% in the past year.
For comparison purposes and for the sake of making it easy to compare the four stocks, I put together three separate tables—one that shows the fundamental indicators from Tickeron, one that shows various indicators from Investor’s Business Daily, and one that shows two sentiment indicators.
The table from Tickeron shows that Citi and Wells are both undervalued while Bank of America and JPMorgan are valued fairly. Wells shows solid price growth while Citi shows better P/E Growth than the others.
Due to a technical issue, the SMR rating and the Profit Vs. Risk rating were not available at the time of this writing. I don’t know of another site that has anything like the Profit Vs. Risk rating, but Investor’s Business Daily has a similar version of the SMR rating. The IBD table shows that JPMorgan has the best SMR rating with an A while Bank of America and Citi both receive B ratings. Wells lags the others in this category with a C rating.
All four companies score really well in the EPS rating and that measures a company’s earnings growth against all other companies in IBD’s data base. The RS rating is a price relative strength rating and that reflects the price performance I mentioned earlier where JPMorgan has kept pace with the S&P while the others have lagged slightly.
As for the sentiment indicators, all of the short interest ratios are below average with JPMorgan having the highest one at 2.4. The average short interest ratio is the neighborhood of 3.0.
As for the analysts’ ratings, we see that Citi is pretty highly thought of by the analysts and it is the only one showing extreme optimism in this category. Wells is the least favorite stock of the four, but with all of the issues the company has had in the past few years that is to be expected. JPMorgan is a little surprising in this category given how well the stock has done and how solid the fundamentals are for the company.
Looking at all three aspects of analysis—fundamentals, sentiment, and technical factors—I like JPMorgan the best with Bank of America as my second favorite. I don’t know if there is anything here to think any of the stocks will do more than keep pace with the overall market, but if I had to pick one it would be JPMorgan Chase.
The RSI Indicator for JPM moved out of oversold territory on April 19, 2024. This could be a sign that the stock is shifting from a downward trend to an upward trend. Traders may want to buy the stock or call options. The A.I.dvisor looked at 33 similar instances when the indicator left oversold territory. In of the 33 cases the stock moved higher. This puts the odds of a move higher at .
The Momentum Indicator moved above the 0 level on April 26, 2024. You may want to consider a long position or call options on JPM as a result. In of 85 past instances where the momentum indicator moved above 0, the stock continued to climb. The odds of a continued upward trend are .
The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) for JPM just turned positive on April 25, 2024. Looking at past instances where JPM's MACD turned positive, the stock continued to rise in of 49 cases over the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .
JPM moved above its 50-day moving average on April 22, 2024 date and that indicates a change from a downward trend to an upward trend.
Following a 3-day Advance, the price is estimated to grow further. Considering data from situations where JPM advanced for three days, in of 333 cases, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued upward trend are .
JPM may jump back above the lower band and head toward the middle band. Traders may consider buying the stock or exploring call options.
The Aroon Indicator entered an Uptrend today. In of 286 cases where JPM Aroon's Indicator entered an Uptrend, the price rose further within the following month. The odds of a continued Uptrend are .
The Stochastic Oscillator demonstrated that the ticker has stayed in the overbought zone for 3 days. The longer the ticker stays in the overbought zone, the sooner a price pull-back is expected.
The 10-day moving average for JPM crossed bearishly below the 50-day moving average on April 22, 2024. This indicates that the trend has shifted lower and could be considered a sell signal. In of 15 past instances when the 10-day crossed below the 50-day, the stock continued to move higher over the following month. The odds of a continued downward trend are .
Following a 3-day decline, the stock is projected to fall further. Considering past instances where JPM declined for three days, the price rose further in of 62 cases within the following month. The odds of a continued downward trend are .
The Tickeron SMR rating for this company is (best 1 - 100 worst), indicating very strong sales and a profitable business model. SMR (Sales, Margin, Return on Equity) rating is based on comparative analysis of weighted Sales, Income Margin and Return on Equity values compared against S&P 500 index constituents. The weighted SMR value is a proprietary formula developed by Tickeron and represents an overall profitability measure for a stock.
The Tickeron Profit vs. Risk Rating rating for this company is (best 1 - 100 worst), indicating low risk on high returns. The average Profit vs. Risk Rating rating for the industry is 61, placing this stock better than average.
The Tickeron PE Growth Rating for this company is (best 1 - 100 worst), pointing to consistent earnings growth. The PE Growth rating is based on a comparative analysis of stock PE ratio increase over the last 12 months compared against S&P 500 index constituents.
The Tickeron Price Growth Rating for this company is (best 1 - 100 worst), indicating steady price growth. JPM’s price grows at a higher rate over the last 12 months as compared to S&P 500 index constituents.
The Tickeron Seasonality Score of (best 1 - 100 worst) indicates that the company is fair valued in the industry. The Tickeron Seasonality score describes the variance of predictable price changes around the same period every calendar year. These changes can be tied to a specific month, quarter, holiday or vacation period, as well as a meteorological or growing season.
The Tickeron Valuation Rating of (best 1 - 100 worst) indicates that the company is significantly overvalued in the industry. This rating compares market capitalization estimated by our proprietary formula with the current market capitalization. This rating is based on the following metrics, as compared to industry averages: JPM's P/B Ratio (1.907) is slightly higher than the industry average of (0.945). P/E Ratio (12.258) is within average values for comparable stocks, (8.857). Projected Growth (PEG Ratio) (3.448) is also within normal values, averaging (2.584). Dividend Yield (0.021) settles around the average of (0.100) among similar stocks. P/S Ratio (3.779) is also within normal values, averaging (2.430).
The average fundamental analysis ratings, where 1 is best and 100 is worst, are as follows
a major bank
Industry MajorBanks