Oakmark's Bill Nygren sees an opportunity in bank stocks amid sector turmoil

Published Tue, Mar 14 20235:41 PM EDT

Oakmark Select Fund's Bill Nygren said it is a good time to buy bank stocks, as attention shifts away from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and toward financial names he believes are strong investments. "I think it's important for people to understand just how different SVB is or was compared to other bank stocks," Nygren said on CNBC's "Closing Bell." The fund manager said the tech-focused Silicon Valley Bank lacked a diversified source of depositors, almost all of them being uninsured, and also had a substantial investment in long-duration assets. The portfolio manager said that the bank stocks Oakmark owns trade at a multiple that is about six to eight times their earnings. These stocks include Capital One , Bank of America , Ally Financial and First Citizens BancShares . The majority of their deposits are FDIC-insured and these banks have a significantly positive mark-to-market book value, he said. BAC 6M mountain Bank of America's stock hit a 52-week low of $27.87 on Monday. Oakmark's top financial holdings, as of Feb. 28, were Wells Fargo , Capital One, Ally Financial, State Street and Citi . Nygren pointed to Bank of America as a top holding that is selling at about eight times its earnings. "We view it as a far-above-average bank, selling at a too-large discount to the S & P 500. We think it's really well managed," he said. The stock gained 0.9% on Tuesday, clawing back into the green after hitting a 52-week low of $27.87 intraday Monday. The stock has dropped by 19% so far this month. The total return on these financial stocks are better than the average company, Nygren said, adding that their slow revenue growth and slight improvement in efficiency leads to "reasonable net income growth" and capital return to shareholders. After a brutal sell-off on Friday and Moday, many bank stocks gained in Tuesday's trading session as investors regained some confidence in the broader financial market. The SPDR S & P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) rose about 2% Tuesday, but is still down about 28% so far this month. It dropped by more than 12% on Monday after banking regulators seized Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, the second- and third-largest bank failures , respectively, in U.S. history. Regulators said Sunday they created a plan to backstop all depositors in the two banks, and ensured that these customers would have full access to their funds on Monday. KRE 1Y mountain The regional bank ETF closed up 2% on Tuesday. Reiterating his confidence in the financial sector, Nygren said that "the consistent message we hear is that customers are behaving as they normally would. It's business as usual."