2015 CEO Salary Ranked for Five Largest US Banks

Despite a year where the average price gain of the five largest US banks fell, see chart of 2015 bank price gains below, their leaders salaries for 2015 were flat to up 35%.  

Yesterday Reuters published the article "Citigroup CEO Corbat gets 27 pct pay hike in 2015" with the pay raises and current salary for the leaders of the top five US banks.   

JP Morgan, the largest bank and parent of Chase Bank, paid its CEO Jamie Dimon twenty-seven million dollars, the highest salary of the five largest banks last year.  Below I rank the total pay from high to low.

CEO Pay Ranking:

1. JP Morgan (JPM) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon +35% to $27M.
2. U.S. Bancorp (USB) head Richard Davis +20% to $21.7M.
3. Wells Fargo (WFC) boss John Stumpf unchanged at $19.3M.
4. Citigroup (C) CEO Michael Corbat +27% to $16.5M.
5. Bank of America (BAC) CEO Brian Moynihan +23% to $16M.

Only JP Morgan and Wells Fargo saw their stocks appreciate in 2015.  This compares the price return for the five largest US banks with the banking ETF, XLF.

Note, this data includes reinvested dividends

It is a good job if you can get it!

I love it when years of hard work pays off!

Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter 

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$JPM $USB $WFC $C $BAC

NanoViricides Inc up 145% YTD at $2.89 with Much Higher Target

NanoViricides Inc (NYSE: NNVC) is up 186% since I added at $1.01 during market weakness last year!  My new subscribers got a second chance early this year.

• Sentiment Charts Reaching Blood In The Street Levels With SPY Down 11%

Obviously, I love it when a newsletter stock I added to less than a year ago at $1.01 jumps over 100% and analysts before analysts jump on the bandwagon and raise the target price. At $2.89, 

I could easily sell enough shares to be on house money today and still have more than I started the year with, but it hasn't hit my "take profits" level yet...

Yesterday in an article called "NanoViricides Inc Stock Is An 52-Week High Flier" David Hannula wrote

The stock of NanoViricides Inc  hit a new 52-week high and has $7.83 target or 171.00% above today’s $2.89 share price. The 7 months bullish chart indicates low risk for the $168.37 million company. The 1-year high was reported on Mar, 15 by Barchart.com. If the $7.83 price target is reached, the company will be worth $287.91M more. The 52-week high event is an important milestone for every stock because it shows very positive momentum and is time when buyers come in. During such notable technical setup, fundamental investors usually stay away and are careful shorting or selling the stock. The stock increased 8.65% or $0.23 during the last trading session, hitting $2.89. About 567,377 shares traded hands or 101.53% up from the average. NanoViricides Inc (NYSEMKT:NNVC) has risen 136.89% since August 7, 2015 and is uptrending. It has outperformed by 139.83% the S&P500.

Analysts await NanoViricides Inc (NYSEMKT:NNVC) to reports earnings on May, 16.

According to Zacks Investment Research, “NanoViricides, Inc. is a development stage company focused on creating special purpose nanomaterials for antiviral therapy. The Company’s novel nanoviricide class of drug candidates are designed to specifically attack enveloped virus particles and to dismantle them. It also focuses on the development of drugs against a number of viral diseases including H1N1 swine flu, H5N1 bird flu, seasonal Influenza, HIV, oral and genital Herpes, viral diseases of the eye including EKC and herpes keratitis, Hepatitis C, Rabies, Dengue fever, and Ebola virus, among others. NanoViricides, Inc. is headquartered in West Haven, Connecticut.”

I like insider buying. Hannula wrote:

Since September 15, 2015, the stock had 1 buying transaction, and 0 insider sales for $32,500 net activity. Boniuk Milton bought 25,000 shares worth $32,500.

Hannula is way behind the times. Boniuk Milton has bought many more shares than that. From http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/nnvc/insider-trades

Warning! The potential revenue from any of its drugs is huge. NNVC is very risky like a stock option that does not expire unless it goes under so I keep my cost basis a small percentage of my explore portfolio as I work to get on “house money.”

Kirk Lindstrom's Investment Letter 

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Donald Trump Shirts Made in India

I get a chuckle out of the presidential debates.  Trump is correct that current policies force companies to look overseas to have things manufactured.  I believe he is dead wrong about wanting a tariff.  

Rather than start a trade war with his proposed 35% tariff that he would have to pay making his own good overseas, why not find some way to lower the taxes to zero for PROFITS on ALL GOODS manufactured in the US. by corporations?  Pass the profits on to workers and shareholders and tax them!

One of two Trump shirts I still have that I bought at closeout from Macys many years ago.
The shirts are decent quality much like any of the other "name brands" sold at Macy's but those are not much different than the house brand polo shirts with pockets from Kohl's either.

Here is exchange from a recent debate

RUBIO: Yeah, a couple points. If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it. The second--

TRUMP: Such a cute sound bite.

RUBIO: But it -- no, it's not a sound bite. It's a fact. Again, go online and Google it. Donald Trump, Polish workers. You'll see it.

The second thing, about the trade war -- I don't understand, because your ties and the clothes you make is made in Mexico and in China. So you're gonna be starting a trade war against your own ties and your own suits.

TRUMP: All right, you know what?

RUBIO: Why don't you make them in America?

TRUMP: Because they devalue their currency -- they devalue their currencies...

RUBIO: Well, then make them in America.

TRUMP: ... that makes it -- well, you don't know a thing about business. You lose on everything...

IRS Lawsuit Telephone Call

I just got a Google (GOOGL) Voicemail message from a party that claims to be the IRS and they are going to sue me.  Rather than shake in my boots, I had a laugh and decided to take the opportunity to warn others along with advice on what to do.  

Here is the call transcript 

IRS Internal Revenue Services the reason of this call is to inform you that i rs is filing lawsuit against you to get more information about this case file please call immediately on our department number 202 803 471043 repeat 202 803 471043 thank you

and image of the transcript of the message the caller left:

Note, the IRS says they will ALWAYS send you a letter of any taxes due via U.S. Mail. I had a good laugh and was thankful I now give my Google Voice phone number to most places that require a phone number so if the sites get hacked or they sell the number, the call is intercepted and goes to Voicemail if I don't answer because the caller's number isn't in my Google Contact list.

 From the IRS website "IRS Reiterates Warning of Pervasive Telephone Scam"

The IRS will always send taxpayers a written notification of any tax due via the U.S. mail. The IRS never asks for credit card, debit card or prepaid card information over the telephone. For more information or to report a scam, go to www.irs.gov and type "scam" in the search box.

What to do: 

If you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS, here’s what you should do:

If you know you owe taxes or you think you might owe taxes, call the IRS at 1.800.829.1040. The IRS employees at that line can help you with a payment issue, if there really is such an issue.

If you know you don’t owe taxes or have no reason to think that you owe any taxes (for example, you’ve never received a bill or the caller made some bogus threats as described above), then call and report the incident to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration at 1.800.366.4484.

You can file a complaint using the FTC Complaint Assistant; choose “Other” and then “Imposter Scams.” If the complaint involves someone impersonating the IRS, include the words “IRS Telephone Scam” in the notes.