Skylands Capital’s Top Finance Stock Picks As Rate Hike Looms

Page 2 of 2

#2 Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE:RJF)

Shares Owned by Skylands Capital (as of September 30): 42,000

Value of Holding (as of September 30): $2.08 million

Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE:RJF) represents the second-largest finance-related position of Skylands Capital at the end of the third quarter. The Milwaukee-based investment firm reduced its stake in the company by 500 shares during the latest quarter. Just recently, the financial services company reported its financial results for its fiscal year 2015 that ended September 30, posting net revenue of $5.2 billion, which was up by 7% year-over-year. The company’s net income came in at $502.1 million, compared with $480.2 million posted in fiscal year 2014. It has been rumored of late that Raymond James intends to acquire the private client brokerage of Deutsche Bank AG. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group owned nearly 854,000 shares of Raymond James Financial Inc. (NYSE:RJF) at the end of June.

Follow Raymond James Financial Inc (NYSE:RJF)

#1 JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM)

Shares Owned by Skylands Capital (as of September 30): 145,450 shares

Value of Holding (as of September 30): $8.87 million

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) is among the top 20 overall holdings of Skylands Capital at the end of the third quarter, and represents its largest finance-related position. Even so, Skylands reduced its holding in the bank by 11,250 shares during the turbulent quarter. The shares of JPMorgan are currently trading at a trailing P/E ratio of 11.11, significantly below the median of over 22 for the S&P 500. The stock is not only trading at attractive levels at the moment, but it also offers an annualized dividend of $1.76 per share of common stock. This denotes an annualized dividend yield of 2.7%. Even more to that, the stock has delivered a year-to-date return of more than 3%, so JPMorgan appears to be a safe finance sector bet for the upcoming months. Edgar Wachenheim’s Greenhaven Associates owns 9 million shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) as of September 30.

Follow Jpmorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM)

Disclosure: None

Page 2 of 2