Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Rochdale's Dick Bove Calls Citigroup His Best Pick (C; GS)

UPDATE: Citigroup: Breakout!: "Buy Bullish Citigroup Options Before Earnings, JPMorgan Says" (C)
Original post:
The most important short-term technical indicator, volume, is the one that is missing.
If we had that I'd go from bullish to wildly, bouncing off the walls, five-star, baby it's a lock bullish.
But we don't. So I calm down, put on my analyst hat and say "Vikram, I think you're right":
"Citigroup CEO Pandit Expected to Say Citicorp Could Earn $20 Billion By 2012" (C)


That was the lead-in to the lead-in. Here's the lead-in:
The video is at Fox Business News. Oddly enough, last Thursday when Meredith Whitney was downgrading GS, Bove was on FBN saying the same thing (Bove: Goldman, Morgan Earnings Will Be Dismal) while getting a dig in on Whitney:

Goldman Smackdown: Dick Bove Vs. Meredith Whitney
Meredith Whitney finally arrived at the anti-Goldman party, cutting her earnings estimates for the embattled securities firm. That isn’t sitting too well with Dick Bove.
Both analysts are known for saturating the media with their provocative views on banks and Wall Street. Whitney and Bove frequently move stocks with their TV-amplified calls, but egos clashed in living color Thursday when Bove went on Fox Business to talk about the financial industry.

“Everybody else has already cut their estimates,” Bove told Fox Business, referring to Whitney’s move on Goldman. “It’s hard to understand why she waited so long.”
Whitney shrunk her second-quarter earnings estimate on Goldman to $1.70 a share from the previous $4.75 a share. She lowered Morgan Stanley to 40 cents a share from 68 cents a share.

Wall Street analysts are famous for reciting in the tiniest detail every example where they were first to upgrade or downgrade a stock. (Their photographic memories get blurry on calls that come back to haunt them.)...MORE at the WSJ's Deal Journal 
Anywho; here's the headline story, from StreetInsider:
Popular bank analyst Dick Bove from Rochdale Securities talked financials on Fox Business Network today ahead of the highly anticipated earnings season.

Discussing Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Bove said the "stock has hit the bottom," but "it's going to be a long haul to get the earnings back to where they were."

On JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM), Bove said, "Most people think earnings are going to be in the low 70’s, I think they are going to be in the mid 60’s. The key problems are the companies invested in banking business did poorly and I think there are going to be problems with their trading activity. Plus there has been no easing in the loan losses in residential real estate."

Commenting on his best pick right now, Bove said it is Citigorup (NYSE: C). Bove said, "The price is being held down by the government sales, but the company has turned around, the earnings power is there, the ability of this company to earn 70 cents at some point in the next 2-3 years is there which means I think it will get to eight and a half dollars a share. It’s not going to be next week but over the next 12-18 months you should expect to see it coming into that range."...MORE
See also:
"Citi: Bove’s Still Bullish; $8.50 in Three Years" (C)
(lot's o'links)