Consumer Finance

Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc. (NYSE: AEA), announced today that it has entered into an agreement with CompuCredit Holdings Corporation to purchase substantially all of the assets of CompuCredit's retail storefront consumer finance business for a total consideration of approximately $...

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is out with a research report on Cardtronics, Inc (NASDAQ: CATM) and is raising its price target to $26, and is keeping its Overweight rating on shares. In a note to clients, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. writes, "CATM reported solid 2Q11 results of $147mm/$0.34 versus...

JP Morgan has raised the price target on Cardtronics (NASDAQ: CATM) from $23 to $26 and maintains its Overweight rating.

Goldman Sachs is out with its report today on American Express (NYSE: AXP), reiterating Buy. In its report, Goldman Sachs writes, "On Wednesday, AXP hosted an investor day. A clear takeaway from the event is that many of AXP's spending initiatives from the past 18 months will drive revenue growth...

Cusick's Corner I am going to change gears and not talk about the Debt debate but focus on the upcoming ex-dividend calendar. Those of you who are dividend traders, yield players (i.e. covered calls/call credit spreads), you need to stay on top of these dates. For the stock trader you need to know...

MasterCard (NYSE: MA) releases its next round of earnings this Wednesday, August 3, 2011. Here's Benzinga's essential guide to MasterCard's second quarter earnings report. Earnings and Revenue: Analysts are predicting an EPS reading of $4.21 per share and revenues of $1.55 billion. MasterCard...

Shares of SLM (NYSE: SLM) are higher on the session by 1.32%, trading at $15.77. Overall call volume is now running at 2.56x the daily average, with 36% of all calls traded being purchases on the offer. 5,524 contracts have traded on the session so far. SLM Corporation, known as Sallie Mae, is a...

Citadel initiated its Coverage of Nelnet (NYSE: NNI) with an Add rating and a price target of $24. On Wednesday, NNI lost 1.18% of its value to finish the day at $20.06.

American Express (NYSE: AXP) and vente-privee.com today announced Mike Steib as the Chief Executive Officer of a joint venture between the two companies to bring vente-privee.com's industry leading online store for luxury goods and lifestyle products to the U.S. market. Steib will work to leverage...

Click here for a FREE Trading Course Each month I update a fundamental/technical screen at Scott's Investments and track the results real-time. June's list of 14 stocks is here and the top 10 rated stocks returned an average of  6.20% versus 5.08% for SPY. The entire list of 14 stocks last...

Three words: biometric fingerprint security. That's all you need to know. Among the eBays (NASDAQ: EBAY) and Amazons (NASDAQ: AMZN) of the world, consumers will find a wide variety of sites that allow them to buy items at a discount and/or sell them at a fair value. Some even provide individuals...

Cardtronics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CATM) today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cardtronics USA, Inc. has completed the acquisition of EDC ATM Subsidiary, LLC and Efmark Deployment I, Inc. The cash purchase price of $145 million was funded through borrowings under the Company's amended credit...

Shares of SLM (NYSE: SLM) are lower on the session by 2.57%, currently trading at $16.28. The stock has been moving largely higher over the past five months and is currently trading above the 200-day moving average. Options traders are buying puts on the name today. A short while ago the August...

By 10:30 am, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 55.48 points, or 0.44%, to 12,625.68, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500 index had dropped 6.39 points, or 0.48%. The NASDAQ composite index fell 12.49 points, or 0.44%. Some of the narrow based indexes that are still afloat in the...

Visa (NYSE: V) announces its next round of earnings this Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Wednesday's third quarter earnings announcement. Earnings and Revenue: Ahead of the company's earnings announcement, analysts are expecting a positive EPS...