Is it a Smart Move to Invest in JPMorgan Chase and Co. (JPM)?

Miller Value Partners, an investment management firm, published its “Miller Opportunity Equity” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be seen here. A quarterly net decline of 4.29% has been recorded by the fund for the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to the S&P 500 Index’s 28.71% gain for the same period. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

Miller Value Partners Opportunity Equity, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and discussed its stance on the firm. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a New York, New York-based investment banking company with a $437.7 billion market capitalization. JPM delivered a -6.09% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 7.56%. The stock closed at $148.70 per share on February 3, 2022.

Here is what Miller Value Partners Opportunity Equity has to say about JPMorgan Chase & Co. in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“I remember writing about the attractiveness of JP Morgan (JPM) right before it lost about a third of its value in the third quarter of 2011 (which didn’t please some of my colleagues!). I believed JPM was a high-quality bank whose prospects were undervalued due to the overhang on the space. It made money every year through the financial crisis.

In the decade-plus since then, JPM has beaten the market nicely (+417% versus SPX +345%) despite significant headwinds for banks (S&P Financial Sector +286%) and value stocks. Low market expectations are a key ingredient to attractive long-term returns!

An earthquake after-shock metaphor helps to explain the situation. Earthquakes relieve tension in physical systems, but aftershocks are common. These aftershocks aren’t as serious as the original event because stresses have been relieved. The financial crisis alleviated tensions in the financial system as weaker players either perished or were shored up with capital. Lessons learned impacted behavior (lower risk-taking behavior and higher propensity for monetary authorities to intervene supportively), which reduced future risk.

Those realities didn’t matter in the short term, but they sure did in the long term.”

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Our calculations show that JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) ranks 17th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. JPM was in 101 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 108 funds in the previous quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) delivered a -11.64% return in the past 3 months.

In February 2022, we published an article that includes JPM in the 5 Dividend Stocks in Crispin Odey’s Hedge Fund Portfolio. You can find more than 100 investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.