Analyst: JPMorgan Chase & Co. 'Still Cheap'

JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM is "stumbling along" at a slightly higher level than its peers, and a recent sell-off in its shares is overdone, an analyst said Friday. Oppenheimer's Chris Kotowski reiterated a Buy rating and $74 target, calling the company's in-line fourth-quarter results "not the end of the world." The money-center bank's shares are off more than 6 percent since posting earnings earlier this week, but changed hands recently at $55.54, up $0.55 cents. Recent earnings were below Kotowski's own estimate because of higher-than expected expenses. The analyst shaved his 2015 earnings estimate slightly to $5.46 a share. Yet J.P. Morgan's risk-adjusted return is between 1 percent and 2 percent higher than its peer group of banks. "We still think the stock is cheap," Kotowski said. The company continues to struggle with lower trading volumes in what Kotowski called a "secular" trend, but non-performing assets fell in the recent quarter and consumer-loan delinquency numbers were stable. "In short, we think asset quality trends still look very, very good," Kotowski said.