RESEARCH ALERT - Ryan Beck on Bank One
NEW YORK, March 14 (Reuters) - Ryan, Beck Southeast Research reiterated its hold rating on shares of Bank One Corp.
(NYSE: ONE), saying it was skeptical about a speedy earnings turnaround at the bank.
-- The bank held an analyst meeting on Monday, to try and instill some confidence in its $2.80-$3.00 earnings estimate
for 2000, analyst Lawrence Cohn wrote in a research report. Bank One warned on March 3 that Wall Street
estimates were too high for the quarter, its fourth warning since last summer.
-- "No individual piece of the company's plan for earnings growth seems unreasonable," Cohn wrote. "But essentially
everything has to break the company's way, in our opinion, for the company to achieve its targets."
-- Particularly concerned about the bank's ability to stem the rate of credit card defections while cutting costs, he said.
Sees no hurry to buy Bank One stock.
-- Key to an earnings rebound is a rapid improvement in profitability at credit card arm First USA, Cohn wrote. The
bank indicated it expected credit card earnings to double from the first to the second quarter, and that earnings for the
first half should come in at $1.30-$1.35 a share, he said. |
