Stocks and Sectors

By Stock Croc:

As the earnings season winds down for the banking industry, there are still some quality companies that report some three weeks after the first banks report. I am focusing today on substantial sized regional banks that have managed to grow their profits in the past year. There are many ways to grow a bank’s balance sheet, be it internal, “organic” growth, or growth through acquisition, or some combination of the two. Of course, a third way to grow a bank is to start from a distressed state. We will find elements of all three of these scenarios in today’s group of regional banks that have recently reported earnings.

Susquehanna Bancshares, Inc. (SUSQ)

Susquehanna is a mid sized regional bank with about 240 branches across the mid Atlantic states, and about $15 billion in assets. Susquehanna stock was trading recently at a little over $9 per share. Its 52 week range

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By Paulo Santos:

Sometimes, there is news that isn’t what it seems. Today, we got one of those: Deutsche Bank (DB) saying that it didn’t take advantage of the LTRO due to its wish to keep its reputation.

But is that a good explanation for Deutsche Bank’s attitude?

I reckon it isn’t. There’s a much better explanation, and as such, much more likely to be the true reason.

The LTRO finances banks for up to three years, thus removing refinancing risk on what the banks choose to buy and deliver as collateral. So, buy they do, with abandon, as I’ve shown previously.

But there is a problem, precisely for German banks. What they can deliver as collateral and buy on a moment’s notice is government debt. And the LTRO finances these assets at a 1% rate. It so happens that to make money with little risk on this scheme, you need to buy

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Principal Financial Group (PFG)

Q4 2011 Earnings Call

February 03, 2012 10:00 am ET

Executives

John Egan – Vice President of Investor Relations

Larry Donald Zimpleman – Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, President, Chairman of Executive Committee, Chairman of Principal Life, Chief Executive Officer of the Principal Life and President of Principal Life

Terrance J. Lillis – Chief Financial Officer, Chief Accounting Officer and Senior Vice President

Daniel J. Houston – President of Retirement, Insurance & Financial Services

Norman R. Sorensen – Chairman of Principal International Inc

Analysts

Randy Binner – FBR Capital Markets & Co., Research Division

Edward A. Spehar – BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division

A. Mark Finkelstein – Evercore Partners Inc., Research Division

Suneet Kamath – Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division

Steven D. Schwartz – Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division

Christopher Giovanni – Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Good morning,

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Aon (AON)

Q4 2011 Earnings Call

February 03, 2012 8:30 am ET

Executives

Gregory C. Case – Chief Executive Officer, President, Executive Director and Member of Executive Committee

Christa Davies – Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President

Analysts

Raymond Iardella – Macquarie Research

Keith F. Walsh – Citigroup Inc, Research Division

Brian Meredith – UBS Investment Bank, Research Division

Michael Nannizzi – Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division

Dan Farrell – Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division

Adam Klauber – Macquarie Research

Jay Gelb – Barclays Capital, Research Division

Yaron Kinar – Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division

Meyer Shields – Stifel, Nicolaus & Co., Inc., Research Division

Michael Zaremski – Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division

Presentation

Operator

Good morning, and thank you for holding. Welcome to Aon Corporation’s Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would also like to remind all parties that this call is being

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By David Alton Clark:

The financials have been on a tear this year and after the outstanding jobs report this morning, they are leading the rally today. I have written several articles on the banks stating that they have gone from being significant underperformers in 2011 to solid outperformers in 2012. Some analysts are stating people should wait for a pullback to get in, a pullback that may never come frankly or may be so quick and shallow you will miss it if you blink. So what to do?

My position is to start a position a quarter at a time on a weekly interval with the bank that is most undervalued by enterprise value to sales ratio (EV/Sales) coupled with having the most upside based on analysts’ consensus mean estimated price target.

The EV/Sales ratio is a valuation measure that compares the enterprise value of a company to the company’s sales. The EV/sales

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