JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) Trading Up 2% – Should You Buy?

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) traded up 2% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $260.62 and last traded at $259.46. 17,629,775 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 117% from the average session volume of 8,107,328 shares. The stock had previously closed at $254.27.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on JPM shares. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $260.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley downgraded JPMorgan Chase & Co. from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $220.00 to $224.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $240.00 to $270.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays lifted their target price on JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $304.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird downgraded JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $200.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $251.78.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Stock Up 2.0 %

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $243.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $224.52. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27. The company has a market cap of $730.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.11.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 15th. The financial services provider reported $4.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.03 by $0.78. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had a net margin of 19.64% and a return on equity of 16.71%. The firm had revenue of $42.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $41.90 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.04 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that JPMorgan Chase & Co. will post 17.46 EPS for the current year.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 31st. Investors of record on Monday, January 6th will be given a $1.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, January 6th. This represents a $5.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.93%. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s dividend payout ratio is 27.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Stacey Friedman sold 3,303 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $253.94, for a total transaction of $838,763.82. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 47,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,092,622.80. This represents a 6.49 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.79% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of JPM. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 58,344,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,258,346,000 after acquiring an additional 505,830 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 31.7% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 16,784,272 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,539,132,000 after purchasing an additional 4,043,841 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,084,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,180,806,000 after buying an additional 302,592 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in JPMorgan Chase & Co. by 7.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 15,073,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,338,955,000 after acquiring an additional 1,016,289 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in JPMorgan Chase & Co. in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,888,088,000. 71.55% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co operates as a financial services company worldwide. It operates through four segments: Consumer & Community Banking (CCB), Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB), Commercial Banking (CB), and Asset & Wealth Management (AWM). The CCB segment offers deposit, investment and lending products, cash management, and payments and services; mortgage origination and servicing activities; residential mortgages and home equity loans; and credit cards, auto loans, leases, and travel services to consumers and small businesses through bank branches, ATMs, and digital and telephone banking.