Focus On 3 Big Banks After Earnings: How Will The Others Fare?

By Robert Gordon In the past few days, three large money center banks reported their fourth quarter and full year earnings for 2011. I thought it appropriate to look at trends, and get an idea about how the balance of the banking and investment banks out there are likely to fare this earnings season. Ticker $ Price / PE 4th quarter profits 2011 per share Full year profits 2011 (billions) 4th quarter profits 2010 per share Full year 2010 profits per share (billions) Full year 2011 return on average assets C 28.70 / 7.7 $0.38 $11.30 $0.43 $10.60 0.57% WFC 29.89 /11.1 $0.73 $15.90 $0.61 $12.40 1.25% JPM 35.26 / 7.9 $0.90 $19.00 $1.12 $17.40 0.86% Be reminded that two of these three institutions’ earnings fell below even lowered expectations despite greatly reduced loan losses in their consumer, mortgage, and commercial portfolios. For many companies, this is a fine time to be a bank. What went wrong? One of the few things these three big banks have in common is that all three were listed on the Financial Stability Board’s list of 29 banks “too big to fail.” Early in the financial crisis of a few years back, JPMorgan Chase…