Analyst Stock Ideas
But some big banks are poised to fare better than others from here.
Meredith Whitney prefers Bank of America coming out of the Federal Reserve stress tests. "What's amazing about this is very rarely do these big banks have value, catalyst and momentum," she told CNBC. "And Bank of America had all of that."
(Read more: 'You Have to Be Bullish,' on US Stocks: Whitney)
The Fed's decision to allow Bank of America to buyback $5 billion in stock may also be a positive read-through for Citigroup, UBS analyst Brennan Hawken said. "Next year Citi's going to be in very similar position to BofA and they'll be able to buyback a lot more than most people expect right now," he said.
With BofA shares are up sharply over the past three months, Whitney sees another 20 percent upside from here. "The stress test was a huge catalyst for this name," she said.
But Whitney stressed the call on BofA isn't about a return to loan growth. "It's all cost cutting," she said. "It's all operating leverage. I don't have a lot of revenue growth expectations for the big banks in general."
(Read More: The Safest Banks in Emerging Markets)
That's one reason Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch prefers Citigroup to Bank of America. "I think just general economic growth and the ability to grow loans and net interest income is going to be a tougher challenge for BofA," he said. He also likes Citigroup for its emerging markets exposure.
And with a $12 price target, Orenbuch believes the good news is already priced into Bank of America shares. Plus, the stock trades at a premium to both Citi and JPMorgan on 2014 and 2015 earnings, he said.