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Dividend Plays Shine When Fed Cuts TheStreet.Com 8-17 "When the Federal Reserve starts cutting, I like to look for stocks with high dividends, simply because people will be flushed out of cash," Jim Cramer said on TheStreet.com TV's Wall Street Confidential on 8-17. "Cash makes no sense, there is no upside," Cramer said. "Rates are obviously now headed down, and any stock that has a good dividend is now headed up." Cramer asked David Peltier, research manager at TheStreet.com, for three dividend-raising names he likes in the current environment. "I still do like US Bancorp," a stock that is putting 80% of its earnings into buybacks and dividends, Peltier replied. Warren Buffett just doubled his stake in USB, and as Buffett "was the best bank buyer in the last bank crisis," according to Cramer, Peltier said he would definitely want to follow Buffett on this stock. Ratings & Dividend Changes On 8-02 Deutsche Securities Upgraded MI from Hold to Buy. On 8-13 Deutsche Securities Upgraded USB from Sell to Hold with a $31 price target, writing that "the bank has a strong balance sheet, thanks to conservative loan underwriting". On 8-20 BMO Capital Markets Upgraded NCC from Underperform to Market Perform. On 8-23 Merrill Lynch downgraded a raft of mid-cap regional banks citing a range of factors including lower earnings expectations and the potential for margin erosion at some of the banks if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates. The broker said banks with balance sheets that are very "asset sensitive" -- meaning their assets reprice more quickly than liabilities -- could face margin pressure. It downgraded City National [CYN], Zions Bancorporation [ZION], Associated Banc-Corp [ASBC], Cullen/Frost Bankers [CFR], Cathay General Bancorp [CATY], FirstMerit [FMER], First Midwest Bancorp [FMBI] and Texas Capital Bancshares [TCBI] all to sell from neutral. It also downgraded SVB Financial Group [SIVB] to sell from buy. On 8-30 Sun Trust Rbsn Humphrey Upgraded BBT from Neutral to Buy. On 8-09 HBAN declared a regular quarterly dividend of $0.4921875 per share, payable 10-01-07, to shareholders of record on 8-20-07. On 8-22 BBT declared a dividend of 46 cents/share payable 11-01 to shareholders of 10-12-07. On 7-23 Lehman Brothers downgraded ABBC to underweight from equal-weight, saying it expects results to remain under pressure in coming quarters. The broker told clients that competitive pricing for both loans and deposits should continue to weigh on the firm's interest margin. In addition, it said more challenging economic conditions in the company's footprint make it difficult to grow loans. Finally Lehman said that Associated Banc-Corp.'s core competency, which is middle market commercial real estate lending, is especially weak. On 7-23 Stifel Nicolaus Upgraded FITB from Sell to Hold and Boenning & Scattergood Downgraded CRBC from Market Outperform to Market Perform. [Boenning & Scattergood had upgraded CRBC on March 13th, when CRBC was selling close to $23, and now downgrades when CRBC is selling around $17.] On 7-17 NTRS declared a dividend of $0.25 per share payable on October 1, 2007, to stockholders of record at the close of business on September 10, 2007. On 7-17 FULT dividend of 15 cents per share payable Oct. 15 to shareholders of record Sept. 21. On 7-18 MTB declared a dividend of $.70 per share - an increase of 17% over the $.60 prior dividend - payable September 28, 2007 to stockholders of record on September 4, 2007. On 7-18 SUSQ announced a dividend of 25 cents per share payable Aug. 17 to shareholders of record Aug. 1st. On 7-20 WL declared a dividend of $0.335 per share payable 8-15-07 to stockholders of record on 8-01-07. On 7-25 ASBC declared a dividend of 31 cents, payable Aug. 15 to shareholders of record Aug. 7. On 7-26 ONB declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.22 payable September 18, 2007, to shareholders of record September 4, 2007. On June 26 BB&T approved a 9.5% increase in the dividend to $.46 per share payable on Aug. 1 to shareholders of July 13. Home Page Factoids Previous Update |