JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) Trading 2% Higher – Still a Buy?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) shot up 2% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $252.88 and last traded at $251.88. 1,791,044 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 11,195,438 shares. The stock had previously closed at $246.89.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on JPM. UBS Group raised their price objective on JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $277.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. StockNews.com raised JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Robert W. Baird raised JPMorgan Chase & Co. from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $215.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $257.00 to $264.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $269.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.67.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Trading Up 2.3 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.24. The company has a market cap of $702.87 billion, a PE ratio of 12.79, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $238.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.57.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, April 11th. The financial services provider reported $5.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.63 by $0.44. The business had revenue of $45.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $43.62 billion. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had a return on equity of 16.99% and a net margin of 20.96%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $4.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will post 18.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a $1.40 dividend. This represents a $5.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. This is a boost from JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.25. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is 27.49%.

Insider Buying and Selling at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

In other news, insider Robin Leopold sold 1,250 shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $246.92, for a total value of $308,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 49,127 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,130,438.84. The trade was a 2.48 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Troy L. Rohrbaugh sold 37,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $269.84, for a total transaction of $10,119,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 158,381 shares in the company, valued at $42,737,529.04. This trade represents a 19.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 73,545 shares of company stock valued at $19,149,144. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,824,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,228,110,000 after purchasing an additional 182,648 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 7.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 15,073,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,338,955,000 after buying an additional 1,016,289 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the third quarter worth $208,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 7.7% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 4,450,775 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $938,491,000 after acquiring an additional 319,730 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC bought a new position in JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the fourth quarter valued at about $204,000. 71.55% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co is a financial holding company, which engages in the provision of financial and investment banking services. It focuses on investment banking, financial services for consumers and small businesses, commercial banking, financial transaction processing, and asset management. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking (CCB), Commercial and Investment Bank (CIB), Asset and Wealth Management (AWM), and Corporate.