CNBC Stock Blog

ABOUT THE CNBC STOCK BLOG

The CNBC Stock Blog is a cross-section of expert opinions and insights from our TV and Web site coverage. This blog includes posts written by and about top analysts and strategists, super-investors and CNBC's own market mavens. You'll find stock picks, news about publicly-traded companies, commodities, hot sectors, ETFs and the latest options action.

STOCKS

» More

MARKET MOVERS

» More

ART CASHIN

Art Cashin on the Markets
Art Cashin, Director of Floor Operations at UBS, shares his analysis and pulse of the market with CNBC viewers.

RSS FEED

» Help

Subscribe to this RSS feed
Stay up to date with the CNBC Stock Blog.

CNBC EXPLAINS

More Good Signs for JPMorgan, Bank Stocks 'In General'

Published: Wednesday, 14 Apr 2010 | 11:37 AM ET

Text Size

By: JeeYeon Park
CNBC.com Writer

JPMorgan handily beat profit and revenue expectations for the first quarter Wednesday, with strength coming from investment banking and fixed-income trading. What does this mean for other bank earnings going forward? Jeffery Harte, managing director of equity research at Sandler O’Neill, shared his insights.

“It looks like a revenue-related beat driven by market and trading revenues,” Harte told CNBC. “Specifically, the fixed income trading number was quite a bit better than expected.”

With improving economic and credit trends, Harte expects JPMorgan [JPM Loading... () ] to start hiking its dividend in the second half of the year.

“Maybe not all the way up to the mid-30 percent payout rate we’re looking for, but maybe halfway there,” he said.

Additionally, Harte noted that delinquency rates have been declining.

“Not only for JPMorgan, but it’s been declining for the industry,” he said. “As long as that continues—that’s the leading indicator—and as long as that keeps going down, that’s going to be good news for JPMorgan and bank stocks in general.”