5 Best Local Bank Stocks to Buy According to Hedge Funds

1. The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 55

The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) is a diversified financial services company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

As of June 14, Gerard Cassidy at RBC Capital holds an Outperform rating on The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) shares, alongside a $148 price target.

There were 55 hedge funds long The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) in the first quarter, with a total stake value of $807 million.

Artisan Partners mentioned The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) in its first-quarter 2023 investor letter:

“We are taking advantage of the current weakness in bank stocks. In Q1, we purchased The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:PNC) and US Bancorp. These are banks we have known for years. They are well-managed and have solid capital positions and liquidity. At the end of Q1, we had an ~7% weighting in banks consisting of PNC, US Bancorp and Bank of America. All 3 are among the 10 largest US banks. We believe the range of probabilities and long-term outcomes are tilted in our favor at current prices but are proceeding with caution for several reasons. First, while we believe deposit-runs have likely burned themselves out, there is a non-zero risk these runs spread wider than our base case. Second, we expect more regulation in coming years which will increase the cost of doing business, potentially in exchange for higher FDIC limits. Third, at the very least we expect banks to cease buybacks for the rest of the year to build up liquidity and capital ratios. There is an increasingly more likely outcome that banks issue equity capital and preferred stock once markets stabilize. Fourth, with the banking system in shock, it will likely retrench, which will constrict capital to the US economy. Coupled with the “long and variable lags” of Fed policy, this will slow US economic growth beyond what private credit markets can make up.”

See also 10 Best Bank Penny Stocks to Buy Now and 25 Largest Banks in the World by Assets.