Financial Stocks: Two Picks for the Long Run

Merrill Lynch isn't around any more, but Sean O'Hara is bullish on America. The president of RevenueShares Investor Service is even bullish on financials, and even on the company that bought Merrill Lynch.

One caveat, though: He's thinking long term.

"The next 500-, 1,000-point move is a coin flip, but the next 10,000-point move is definitely up, so we're bullish for the long-term investor," he told CNBC.

That said, he's got some short-term triumph to talk about, too. His newly-created financial-sector fund, which he admits may have been a little ahead of the game when he introduced it last year, is up 71 percent since March 9.

Recommendations:

"Look at Bank of America, for example," he said. "They now own Merrill Lynch as part of their franchise, and so they have 13,000 financial advisers; so, on average, they have $500 million under management."

That's not all that's changed.

"Look at Wells (Fargo); they took over Wachovia Bank and Wachovia Securities, so these businesses are different than they were six months ago as a result of this," he said.

"Deposits are up, spreads are up, underwriting is better, collateral is better. They've still got balance-sheet issues, there's no question about that, but I think there's a lot of positive that nobody's talking about."

Disclosures:

Disclosure information for Sean O'Hara was not immediately available.

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Compare the Other Big Banks:

Citigroup

JPMorgan Chase

Morgan Stanley

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