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%.
They report Thursday. Usually, shares get crushed after the report, but what if there's nowhere to go except up because they have fallen so far? It makes no sense that their net interest margins are so high, yet shares are so low. Before when net interest margins were much lower, shares were much higher. No sense. He likes the banks before their quarter. The St. Louis Fed says that loans were still strong this quarter. Banks, which have been frigid, could be hot now and they usually work well at this point of the cycle. MS pays a good dividend.