Best Bank Stocks for 2026 and How to Invest

Bank stocks are publicly traded securities that represent equity interest in a financial institution. In other words, bank stocks allow you to own a piece of your favorite banks.

Banks can seem like complicated businesses, and they are complicated in many ways. However, the basic ideas behind the banking industry and how these businesses make their money are easy to understand. With that in mind, here's an overview of five great beginner-friendly bank stocks to keep on your radar, how to invest in them, the different types of banks, and some important metrics investors should know.

Top five bank stocks to put on your radar in 2026

Hundreds of banks trade on the major U.S. exchanges, and they come in various sizes, geographic locations, and focuses. Although there are some excellent choices for investors, here are five beginner-friendly bank stocks that could deliver excellent returns for years to come:

The different categories of banking businesses

There are a few different categories banks can be classified into, depending on things like their business composition, size, and geographic footprint.

• Retail banks: These are banks that provide services to consumers and businesses, including checking and savings accounts, auto loans, mortgages, and certificates of deposit. Commercial banks primarily make money by borrowing it at a relatively low interest rate and lending it to customers at a higher rate. Although commercial banks make the bulk of their money from interest income, many also collect substantial revenue from loan origination fees, ATM surcharges, and account maintenance fees.
• Investment banks: These banks provide investment services for institutional clients and high-net-worth individuals. Investment banks earn fees by issuing debt securities, offering advice on mergers and acquisitions, and helping other companies go public through initial public offerings (IPOs). Investment banks also make money from trading in equities, fixed-income securities, currencies, and commodities. They typically have wealth management businesses and often have substantial investment portfolios of their own.
• Universal banks: A universal bank is one that has both retail and investment banking operations. Most large U.S. banks are universal banks.
• National banks: A national bank is a financial institution that has operations throughout the United States.
• Regional banks: Banks that have operations only in certain areas of the United States. Regional banks vary greatly in size. Some are rather small, while others are among the largest banks in the U.S.
• Community banks: Banks that operate in a localized area. For example, a community bank may have just a few branches in a single state.

These are obviously simplified definitions. Banks have many other ways to generate revenue. For example, many banks offer safe deposit boxes for lease to their customers, and some make money through partnerships with third-party companies. However, at their core, these are the primary ways banks generate their revenue.

Important metrics for bank stock investors

If you're looking to invest in individual bank stocks, here are a few metrics that you might want to add to your tool kit:

• Price-to-book (P/B) value: An excellent valuation metric to use with bank stocks, the price-to-book (P/B) ratio shows how much a bank is trading for relative to the net value of its assets. It can be used in combination with profitability metrics (discussed next) to provide a picture of how cheap or expensive a bank stock is.
• Return on equity (ROE): The first of two common profitability metrics used with bank stocks, return on equity is a bank's profits expressed as a percentage of its shareholders' equity. Higher is better; 10% or above is generally considered strong.
• Return on assets (ROA): This is a bank's profit as a percentage of the assets on its balance sheet. For example, if a bank made a $1 billion profit for a given year and had $100 billion in assets, its return on assets would be 1%. Investors in bank stocks generally want to see an ROA of 1% or higher.
• Efficiency ratio: A bank's efficiency ratio is a percentage that tells investors how much the bank spent to generate its revenue. For example, a 60% efficiency ratio means that a bank spent $60 for every $100 in revenue it generated. You get the efficiency ratio by dividing noninterest expenses (operating costs) by net revenue; lower is better.
• Net charge-off ratio: This is a metric that shows how much of the bank's loan portfolio is written off as uncollectible, expressed on an annualized basis. Essentially, a 1% charge-off ratio implies that $1 million annually of every $100 million in loans is bad debt. This is an important metric in tough economies, and it can let investors know how a bank's loan portfolio is performing relative to peers.

It's also worth noting that net income, or earnings per share, isn't necessarily the best metric to use when evaluating bank earnings. There are certain items included in this (such as money added to loan loss reserves) that aren't actually expenses, as well as one-time items like special assessments by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) that can distort the traditional EPS metric and make the price-to-earnings ratio less useful than with most other sectors.

The cyclicality of bank stocks

Banks can be a great place to invest, especially in strong economies.

When consumers are confidently spending, and unemployment is low, profits tend to grow and loan defaults are typically kept in check. On the other hand, banks tend to perform quite poorly during recessions and other uncertain times. In investing terms, this means banks are a cyclical business.

There are several reasons why banks tend to perform poorly during recessions and other challenging economic climates. For one thing, they can face a wave of loan defaults if unemployment rises. Additionally, consumers tend to slow their spending during recessions, resulting in lower demand for loans.

On the other hand, certain aspects of investment banking -- such as trading -- tend to perform better in turbulent times. Banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs (GS +1.16%) that have large investment banking operations could be helped by tough times, while banks that largely focus on retail banking, such as Wells Fargo (WFC +1.94%), could be at a temporary disadvantage.

It's also worth mentioning that the United States occasionally faces a banking crisis, and customer panic is a very real risk factor. Consider the 2023 failure of SVB Financial's Silicon Valley Bank. It began when the bank unexpectedly reported that it needed to sell assets at a loss. But the bank collapsed when customers panicked and withdrew tens of billions of dollars from the bank.

Warren Buffett loves banks

Outgoing Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A +0.96%)(BRK.B +1.41%) CEO Warren Buffett is known as one of the best stock investors of all time. During more than 60 years at the helm of the company, Buffett has delivered annualized returns more than double those of the S&P 500, and the investments he's chosen for Berkshire's massive stock portfolio over the years are a good reason for the excellent returns.

If you take a glance at Berkshire's stock portfolio, you'll notice one major trend: Buffett owns quite a few bank stocks. Berkshire owns stakes worth $1 billion or more in several bank stocks, including almost 8% of Bank of America, approximately 22% of American Express (AXP +0.20%), and 9.4% of Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY).

The bottom line on bank stocks

Although it's not necessarily a smart idea to buy any particular stock just because a billionaire owns it (even Warren Buffett), there does appear to be some value in the banking industry if you're a patient, long-term investor who can tolerate some short-term volatility. So if you don't have much exposure in your portfolio, one or more of the rock-solid banks discussed here could be a good fit for you.

FAQ