Stock price when the opinion was issued
Flagship US bank. Dimon has done a spectacular job. Pristine risk controls. Trading ~13x PE. Either #1 or #2 in all of its major businesses. Still growing and gaining market share. Core holding in any portfolio. Time is ripe to buy the best, you don't have to go down the food chain. Yield is 2.73%.
(Analysts’ price target is $266.16)Financial sector offers great promise, though it's reacted to current markets by pricing in a potential recession. Slower economic growth would not be good for banks. Absent a recession, with consumer confidence returning and unleashing M&A, the sector provides a good opportunity.
Don't value it on PE. Instead look at price to book, and it's expensive at 1.8x. Less expensive options include BAC and C.
Very efficient, with the lowest overhead ratio and highest ROE of all competitors. Very strong balance sheet, and it's very liquid. Should outperform peers in any type of economic environment. Stock's pulled back on tariff uncertainties about 17% from its highs, now trading ~12.5x forward PE. Increased dividend last week. Yield is 2.42%.
(Analysts’ price target is $257.89)A new purchase (June) for the portfolio. Global scale. Quite possibly the best bank in the world. Its smaller wealth management business is a focus for growth. Increasingly, scale matters in banking; secular shift away from regional banks.
Abundant organic growth opportunities, so it pays out a modest 25% of earnings in dividends. Outperforms the Canadian big 6, a rare feat. Robust earnings and dividend growth, compounding ~13% over the last decade. Yield is 1.99%.
He likes US banks and prefers them to Canadian banks. US household debt is lower than Canada’s. Interest rates are likely to rise faster in the US than in Canada, which is good for US bank stocks. When 10-year bond rates finally rose higher than 3%, US banks started rising again. He owns two regional US banks and is currently looking at a large US bank. Overall, he likes the sector, including JP Morgan, but he is not planning to buy that particular bank.