Oppenheimer upgrades JPM, Morgan Stanley, SVB Financial on rising interest rates and loan growth

Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski on Tuesday upgraded shares of Dow Jones Industrial Average component JPMorgan Chase & Co. to outperform from perform, along with Morgan Stanley and SVB Financial Group . Each of those three names has a 30%-plus upside potential in the next 12 to 18 months, after pullbacks in their stock prices and are benefitting from loan growth and higher interest rates, he said. “Investors should take advantage of this weakness,” Kotowski said. He noted that bank stocks started the year in positive territory before jitters about a recession and the war in Ukraine took hold, despite current strength in the economy and rising interest rates that typically boost bank earnings. “Why upgrade three stocks now when there is more ‘uncertainty’ in the world?,” Kotowski said. “In our view, the world is always uncertain, and there are just times when more people are worried about it, and this is one of those times. But the simple reality is that we have raised our earnings estimates for all three of the companies that we are upgrading during this earnings season, and all three are down more than the S&P 500 and the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index.” Shares of JPMorgan rose 1.1%, while Morgan Stanley advanced by 1.6% and SVB Financial Group tacked on 1.4%. The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index rose 0.6%.

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