5 Best Bank and Finance Stocks to Buy According to Mario Gabelli

4. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 108   

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is a New York-based financial services company. It is placed fourth on our list of 10 best bank and finance stocks to buy according to Mario Gabelli. Regulatory filings show that GAMCO Investors owned 456,348 shares in the firm at the end of the second quarter of 2021 worth $70.9 million, representing 0.6% of the portfolio. 

On July 14, investment advisory Credit Suisse maintained an Outperform rating on JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) stock and raised the price target to $177 from $170, noting the upside was driven by broad based revenue and operating leverage realization. 

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Washington-based investment firm Fisher Asset Management is a leading shareholder in the firm with 6.9 million shares worth more than $1 billion. 

In its Q4 2020 investor letter, Bretton Fund, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“After a strong performance in 2019, we wrote this about our bank stocks in last year’s report: “There will be another recession sooner than later, and our banks will see larger loans losses, but we think this is more than priced into the stock, and our banks are well reserved for that eventuality.” Little did we know “sooner” really meant “a few weeks from now.” Despite the economic shock, the banks still have huge capital cushions that can absorb large loan losses. Our remaining bank investments, JPMorgan and Bank of America, increased their reserves significantly at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis in anticipation of imminent loan defaults, but with the government stimulus and perhaps a more resilient economy than many would have guessed, actual loan losses are up only slightly. They might happen later in 2021, but with an additional stimulus package and the vaccine rolling out, the large-scale losses may not be as bad as most people predicted. The bigger drag on the banks’ earnings power is lower rates, which in our opinion will persist for a long time. Despite this drag, we estimate both JPMorgan and Bank of America will continue to grow revenue and earnings over the next few years, while we believe their stocks remain bargains in a somewhat expensive market. JPMorgan’s earnings per share declined 17% last year, and its stock returned -5.5%. Bank of America’s earnings, which are more sensitive to interest rates, were down 32%, and its stock returned -11.6%.”