It’s crazy not to own the regional banks right now, Dick Bove, banks analyst at Rochdale Securities, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Monday.
“The quality of earnings is extraordinarily high,” Bove said of the regional banks. “It’s coming from more loans and more deposits.”
Bove said US Bancorp , PNC Financial , BB&T, and Wells Fargo are extremely attractive and should be owned. According to Bove, many put up “picture perfect” earnings in the second quarter.
The universal banks like JPMorgan and Bank of America are for those with a strong stomach, Bove said.
“It’s hard to assume that these stocks are going to go up so long as people refuse to look at the earnings,” he said.
In general, Bove said, “The problem with bank stocks is not anything to do with earnings or the structure of their balance sheets, the problem with bank stocks is that people don’t believe any of the numbers associated with this group of companies.”
He added: “If no one cares about how much money these banks make and no one cares about what the growth rates have been coming out of the recession, it’s very difficult to see what’s going to them to buy the stocks.”