JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Citigroup Inc (C): Three Financial Stocks to Consider

Margins are expanding and cash-flow is accelerating. The company also recently announced a share-buy back of $600 million in stock this year and anywhere from $600 million to $900 million in 2014. Reduced investment risk, rising margins and cash flows, and share buybacks should get AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE:AFL) back to double-digit earnings-per-share growth, and boost the stock. Yes, it’s lagged in 2013, but over the past 52 weeks it’s still up more than 40%. Keep on eye out for this little duck.

CitiGroup Inc (NYSE:C).

CitiGroup Inc (NYSE:C) recently delivered a profit and beat Wall Street’s expectations, and beat revenue expectations as well. Equities research analysts at the company also boosted their price target on shares to $58.00 in a research note issued to investors. You can expect better performance from CitiGroup Inc (NYSE:C) ahead. The company is an innovative firm with plenty of new products providing potential for incremental growth.

Despite uncertainty about the bank’s expenses and non-recurring charges, CitiGroup Inc (NYSE:C) continues to achieve stability from retail consumer banking, lower credit costs across its diverse business lines, and steady revenue growth from CitiGroup Inc (NYSE:C) Private Banking. Financial investors should keep this stock on their watch list, as it has potential to grow in the second half of the year.

Foolish conclusion

Sluggish economic growth and the Federal Reserve’s road map to winding down its bond-buying program around this time next year mean that the easy money for the financial sector may have already been made. The sector is outperforming the broader market by a wide margin so far in 2013, however, and has been absolutely clobbering it over the past 52 weeks. The aforementioned stocks showing promising signs of upward growth and are definitely stocks that investors need to keep an eye on in the second half of the year.

Chris Johnson has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Aflac. The Motley Fool owns shares of Citigroup Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM).. Chris is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

The article 3 Financial Stocks to Consider originally appeared on Fool.com is written by Chris Johnson.

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