Financial Services - Week of Jan 21st
Greetings KFG,
As usual, much has been happening in the Financial Services sector:
C: Citi is down a few cents on the week, nothing material. They are expanding their Mortgage business by purchasing a unit from ABN Amro, going with the trend of non-organic growth in the sector. Citi is also changing its logo and focusing more on its Investment Bank in the coming quarter (trying to battle the GS's and LEH's of the world on the league tables). I am still bullish on this company as a buy and hold play, and nothing more. It may fluctuate with the sector due to interest rate speculations (due to its large concentration in the consumer finance realm - (borrowing short, lending long). Tomorrows WSJ will feature an article on the recent mgmt shake-ups and how CEO Charles Prince is handling them. Prince will really be tested in the coming period to see if he can really grow and sustain earnings for Citi - allowing them to compete with Bank of America on the retail side and Goldman Sachs on the IBD side.
MER: Our boys at Merrill announced earnings last week and they were good. Some highlights:
-NI up 68%
-Income from continuing operations up 21%
-21% ROE for the year
-Increased dividend by 40%
All of this (especially the dividend) helped the stock. We are already up 41% on the stock. I want to continue to hold it, but cash some profit out if we reach a gain of over 45%. I say this because of opportunity cost. I want to get rid of some and get to the other. We sold half of Citi to buy MER, now I want to move down the line.
I want to look at OPBL. Optionable is a brokerage services company that provides trading and brokerage services to brokerage firms, financial institutions, energy traders, and hedge funds in the United States. The company offers natural gas and other energy derivatives trading and brokerage services, OTC energy derivatives brokerage services, energy futures derivatives services, and services for lesser used derivatives, such as swaptions. The do business with the NYMEX, so they seem legitimate. Shares are cheap (under $5), I think we should put our toe in it to watch it, and buy some more later. A proposal will come next week.
Until next time,
Rich
MER:
As usual, much has been happening in the Financial Services sector:
C: Citi is down a few cents on the week, nothing material. They are expanding their Mortgage business by purchasing a unit from ABN Amro, going with the trend of non-organic growth in the sector. Citi is also changing its logo and focusing more on its Investment Bank in the coming quarter (trying to battle the GS's and LEH's of the world on the league tables). I am still bullish on this company as a buy and hold play, and nothing more. It may fluctuate with the sector due to interest rate speculations (due to its large concentration in the consumer finance realm - (borrowing short, lending long). Tomorrows WSJ will feature an article on the recent mgmt shake-ups and how CEO Charles Prince is handling them. Prince will really be tested in the coming period to see if he can really grow and sustain earnings for Citi - allowing them to compete with Bank of America on the retail side and Goldman Sachs on the IBD side.
MER: Our boys at Merrill announced earnings last week and they were good. Some highlights:
-NI up 68%
-Income from continuing operations up 21%
-21% ROE for the year
-Increased dividend by 40%
All of this (especially the dividend) helped the stock. We are already up 41% on the stock. I want to continue to hold it, but cash some profit out if we reach a gain of over 45%. I say this because of opportunity cost. I want to get rid of some and get to the other. We sold half of Citi to buy MER, now I want to move down the line.
I want to look at OPBL. Optionable is a brokerage services company that provides trading and brokerage services to brokerage firms, financial institutions, energy traders, and hedge funds in the United States. The company offers natural gas and other energy derivatives trading and brokerage services, OTC energy derivatives brokerage services, energy futures derivatives services, and services for lesser used derivatives, such as swaptions. The do business with the NYMEX, so they seem legitimate. Shares are cheap (under $5), I think we should put our toe in it to watch it, and buy some more later. A proposal will come next week.
Until next time,
Rich
MER:
posted by Rich Golaszewski at
10:40 PM
1 Comments:
ooo swaptions....
zing zinga boom boom
By
Rob, at 2:20 PM
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