Bank of America Corp. (BAC) is expected to report Q4 results before the market open on Wednesday, January 20 with a conference call scheduled for 9:30 am ET. GuidanceAnalysts are looking for EPS of (52c) on revenue of $26.84B. The consensus range is (68c)-(32c) for EPS, and $24.77B-$29.56B for revenue, according to First Call. Bank of America's board of directors named Brian Moynihan as the company's new CEO on December 16. Investors will be interested to see how Moynihan handles his first earnings conference call and whether he launches any new initiatives or provides any new perspectives on the bank's strategic direction. Morgan Stanley (MS), one of the world's top investment banks, is scheduled to discuss its fourth-quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 11:00 AM (ET), which will include CEO James Gorman. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website. During the three months that ended in December, the New York-based firm launched its Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management initiative, saw management changes and declared a quarterly dividend. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are looking for Morgan Stanley to report earnings of $0.36 per share, compared to loss of $2.34 per share a year ago and earnings of $0.27 in the third quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue is expected to total $7.8 billion. The full-year forecast is for a loss of $0.87 per share on $24.9 billion in revenue. Morgan Stanley beat consensus earnings estimates in the third quarter, but posted larger-than-expected losses in the previous two quarters. Morgan Stanley's long-term EPS growth forecast is 8.6%, which is about the same as that of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) but less than Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS). Morgan Stanley's earnings multiple is 11x. The consensus recommendation is to buy MS; analysts have been impressed with its apparent turnaround. The mean price target is $37.55. Shares are about 6% lower than three months ago and down about $4 from the 52-week high of $35.78. Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) is expected to report Q4 results before the market open on Wednesday, January 20 with a conference call scheduled for 10:30 am ET. GuidanceAnalysts are looking for EPS of (1c) on revenue of $21.97B. The consensus range is (16c)-10c for EPS, and $20.79B-$23.31B for revenue, according to First Call. A Ladenburg Thalmann analyst recently initiated Wells Fargo with a Buy rating. The analyst believes that Wells Fargo, along with Bank of America (BAC) and JP Morgan (JPM), is a "bionic bank" that will aggressively look to implement growth investments, dividend increases and share buybacks following its repayment of TARP last month. At least two other research firms were more upbeat about Wells Fargo last month following the bank's decision to repay TARP. Analyst ViewsA Deutsche Bank analyst upgraded Wells Fargo to Buy from Hold, citing reduced uncertainty in the bank's outlook and his belief that the company would report better than expected Q4 results. The analyst increased his target to $36 from $29. Meanwhile, a Keefe Bruyette analyst responded to Wells' TARP repayment by upgrading the stock to Market Perform from Underperform .The analyst raised his target on the stock to $28 from $24. Investors will want to determine the potential impact on Wells Fargo of regulatory actions that Washington is preparing to unveil. Specifically, the FDIC is considering linking the amount of fees it charges banks to the methods the institutions use to compensate their executives, FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair told CNBC on January 12. In addition, President Obama proposed a tax on financial institutions with assets of over $50B. Wells Fargo falls into that category. |