The turmoil in the markets makes it too easy to justify
selling any stock these days. While an investor's own panic
never helps her, it's still a good idea to play devil's
advocate with investments.
Consider major bank
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM). Though the
company is bucking the trend in financials these days, you'll
find more than a few of the 3,484
Motley Fool CAPSmembers weighing in on the company
offering reasons to be bearish.
Here at The Motley Fool, we like to consider both the good
and bad sides of an investment. Below I've highlighted three
of the main bearish arguments on JPMorgan Chase. Be sure to
read
the bullish sideas well, and then weigh in with your own
comments below or rate JPMorgan Chase
in
CAPS.                                                                                        Â
1. Deteriorating credit
While trading profits for banks like JPMorgan,
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), and
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) may look good, some
CAPS members think they're only masking some of
JPMorgan's
underlying risk. Its nonperforming assets more than
doubled year over year in the third quarter, and the credit
card portfolio it acquired from Washington Mutual has
an astonishing default ratethat trumps that of other card
issuers like
Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) or
American Express (NYSE: AXP) by a wide
margin.
2. Piling on the reserves
JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon said that there
may be signs of stability, but it may not last, as consumer
credit is still affected by declining home prices and
unemployment. Similar to
Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and
Citigroup (NYSE: C), JPMorgan continues to
add to its loan-loss reserves; its total credit reserves
now sit at $31.5 billion and the bank gave no indication that
any would be released anytime soon.
3. Gotten ahead of itself
After having its share price nearly triple from its
March lows, a good portion of CAPS members are skeptical that
JPMorgan's shares can produce good returns
from this point forward. Many still see a
high amount of riskthat doesn't
justify owning shares
at today's
prices.                                                        Â
Â
To see details of what CAPS members
are saying
nowabout JPMorgan Chase, just click on over to
Motley Fool CAPSand have a look. Or scroll down and add
your thoughts in the comments box below. And don't forget to
at least skim what the other side has to say by reading our "
3 Reasons to Buy JPMorgan Chase Today."
This article was originally published as
3 Reasons to Sell JPMorgan Chase Todayon
Fool.com
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reserved.
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