JPMorgan May Need Another $4 Billion For Legal Losses

According to CNBC’s Kate Kelly, JPMorgan has just released its 10-K and it reveals some shocking information.
Kelly says “JPMorgan [JPM 46.69 0.01 (+0.02%) ] has been named as a defendant in about 10,000 different law suits. And as a result, they could end up needing an additional $4.5 billion on top of what they’ve already set aside for legal losses."

What should you make of it?

Instant Insights with the Fast Money traders

Fast trader Karen Finerman is a JPMorgan shareholder but she isn’t concerned by these developments. "They talked about substantial legal costs in their last call," she says. "I don’t know this is materially different (than what they said)."

And looking at the burden per share, she adds, “there’s a tad under 4 billion shares outstanding so that’s about $1/share."

Joe Terranova wonders what it means for the dividend. “Do you believe it delays the reinstitution of the dividend?” he says. “I don’t know. But if they’re talking about exceeding their reserve, it could get delayed.”

Tim Seymour thinks it’s a big headline but he isn’t worried, either. He doesn’t feel $4 billion is all that much in the scheme of things. "And the fact that they're being more conservative on estimates of potential losses is not a surprise," he adds. He’s a buyer of weakness.