10 Best Local Bank Stocks To Invest In Now

4. First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders In Q2 2024: 46

First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) is a North Carolina based regional bank. It is one of the hottest stories in the US banking industries, due to the mini banking crisis in the US that shook Wall Street in 2023. The crisis saw some of the biggest local US banks fail as high bond yields and inadequate loss provisions left them unable to meet their commitments. This saw First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) swoop in and buy Silicon Valley Back, and the success of the acquisition coupled with the outlook for net interest income and margins are the keys to its hypothesis. Even as US banking growth is expected to slow down soon, the addition of SVB into First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA)’s portfolio will enable the bank to grow – a fact that’s also reflected in its share price gains of 43.4% over the past 12 months to lead the KBW regional banking index by, well, 43.3 percentage points. However, First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA)’s shares trade at a premium of 27.6% over its shares, which raises the question of whether there’s any more room for the stock to grow. While the stock trades at $1,898.10, the average of 14 analyst share price targets is $2,287,  implying that if First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) performs well on the dual fronts of interest income and cost control then the stock might have some more juice left in it.

Artisan Partners mentioned First Citizens BancShares, Inc. (NASDAQ:FCNCA) in its Q4 2023 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“First Citizens was our top overall contributor in 2023. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, and one of the largest family-controlled banks in the US, First Citizens was a big winner from its acquisition of the failed Silicon Valley Bank. First Citizens purchased $72.1 billion in loans at a deeply discounted price of $16.5 billion. The transaction adds scale, increases geographic diversity and is financially attractive with downside protections from a loss-sharing agreement with the FDIC. First Citizens is now one of the top-15 largest US banks. The bank is run by and almost fully controlled by CEO Frank Holding and his family members. They have significant ownership, aligning their interest with minority shareholders like us. They’ve done an admirable job of growing the bank by keeping a strong capital and liquidity profile that allows for opportunistic M&A during times of market stress, like we just experienced in March. In the global financial crisis, First Citizens used its position of strength to acquire when others could not, and during the COVID-induced stress of 2020, it flexed its muscles again with the acquisition of CIT at a great price.”