J.P. Morgan Trading Revenue Drives Earnings Beat

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM ) outshined its banking peers on Friday morning, reporting a second-quarter earnings beat on better-than-expected trading revenue. But even J.P. Morgan is struggling to maintain its margins, leaving analysts only cautiously optimistic about the stock’s outlook.

J.P. Morgan reported second-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $2.29 on revenue of $28.4 billion. Both numbers topped consensus analyst estimates of $2.22 and $27.3 billion, respectively. Revenue was up 6 percent from a year ago.

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The revenue beat was driven by trading revenue of $5.4 billion, well above consensus estimates of $4.9 billion. Bond trading revenue was $3.5 billion compared to analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. Stock trading was $2 billion, beating analyst expectations of $1.7 billion.

Company-wide loans were up 4 percent to $948.4 billion, above analyst expectations of $944.5 billion.

The only potentially troubling number from J.P. Morgan on Friday was the company’s net interest margin of 2.46 percent. Net interest margin was in line with consensus expectations and down 0.2 percent compared to the first quarter.

“We see good global economic growth, particularly in the U.S., where consumer and business sentiment is high,” CEO Jamie Dimon says in a statement. “Because of this broad growth and the strong underlying performance across each of our businesses, the company delivered record results this quarter.”

J.P. Morgan did not provide investors with quarterly guidance for the third quarter. Last month, Dimon joined Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK.A , BRK.B ) CEO Warren Buffett in a public campaign to convince companies to stop issuing quarterly guidance. Buffett and Dimon argued that quarterly guidance encourages short-term thinking, which stifles innovation and growth.

Bank of America analyst Erika Najarian says J.P. Morgan’s lackluster net interest margin could be a bad sign for the entire U.S. banking industry.

“Given JPM’s status as the industry bellwether, skittish generalists may point to that [net interest margin] decline as evidence for staying away from bank stocks in a flattening yield curve environment,” Najarian says.

However, she says equities trading was a particular bright spot for J.P. Morgan .

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“Equity markets revenue was up 24 percent year-over-year, driven by strength in derivatives and Prime Services, beating both our and consensus forecasts,” Najarian says.

Bank of America has a “buy” rating and $126 price target for JPM stock .

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