Best Bank Stocks to Watch in 2025

Best Bank Stocks for 2025

By Matthew Frankel, CFP – Updated Sep 28, 2025 at 3:53 PM | Fact-checked by Frank Bass

Key Points

Bank stocks offer ownership in banking institutions, simplifying investment in the sector.
Top bank stocks like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase show strong market caps and growth.
Metrics such as P/B value and ROE are crucial for assessing bank stocks' profitability.

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 the different types of banks, some important metrics investors should know, and three great beginner-friendly bank stocks to keep on your radar.

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Bank of America Tower in Midtown Manhattan and surrounding buildings, wide angle upward view, New York City — Image source: Getty Images.

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Ticker Information Table
Name and ticker	Market cap	Dividend yield	Industry
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)	$381.6 billion	2.06%	Banks
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM)	$816.9 billion	1.87%	Banks
U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB)	$74.1 billion	4.24%	Banks
Citigroup (NYSE:C)	$180.9 billion	2.32%	Banks
SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ:SOFI)	$34.1 billion	0.00%	Consumer Finance

Data as of Oct 22, 2025.

1. Bank of America

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NYSE: BAC

Bank of America

Today's Change

(-1.00%) $-0.52

Current Price

$51.52

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$382B

Day's Range

$51.44 - $52.37

52wk Range

$33.06 - $52.88

Volume

27M

Avg Vol

34M

Gross Margin

0.00%

Dividend Yield

0.02%

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2. JPMorgan Chase

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NYSE: JPM

JPMorgan Chase

Today's Change

(-1.74%) $-5.27

Current Price

$297.09

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$817B

Day's Range

$297.00 - $304.05

52wk Range

$202.16 - $318.01

Volume

7.4M

Avg Vol

8.1M

Gross Margin

0.00%

Dividend Yield

0.02%

JPMorgan Chase is hands-down the most profitable of the big U.S. banks, and it's also the largest bank by market capitalization and total assets in the U.S. The bank has operations in just about every area of both commercial and investment banking, and it has done a particularly good job of expanding its credit card and auto loan businesses in recent years. JPMorgan Chase has also done an excellent job of embracing new technologies, and it has made some key investments in financial technology (fintech) companies.

Although the company's Chase consumer banking operation is one of the largest in the U.S., it is worth noting that JPMorgan Chase has one of the largest investment banks in the United States as well.

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3. U.S. Bancorp

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NYSE: USB

U.S. Bancorp

Today's Change

(1.17%) $0.55

Current Price

$47.65

Key Data Points

Market Cap

$74B

Day's Range

$46.96 - $47.83

52wk Range

$35.18 - $53.98

Volume

624K

Avg Vol

9.3M

Gross Margin

0.00%

Dividend Yield

0.04%

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About the Author

Matt Frankel, CFP, is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst and personal finance expert covering financial stocks, REITs, SPACs, and personal finance. Prior to The Motley Fool, Matt taught high school and college mathematics. He holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of South Carolina, a master’s degree in mathematics from Nova Southeastern University, and a graduate certificate in financial planning from Florida State University. He won a SABEW award for coverage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. He is also regularly interviewed by Cheddar, The National Desk, and other TV networks and publications for his financial, stock market, and investing expertise.

TMFMattFrankel

@MattFrankelCFP

Wells Fargo is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Citigroup is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Bank of America is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Ally is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. American Express is an advertising partner of Motley Fool Money. Matt Frankel has positions in Ally Financial, American Express, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Capital One Financial, and SoFi Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Berkshire Hathaway, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase, and U.S. Bancorp. The Motley Fool recommends Capital One Financial. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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.

Best Bank Stocks for 2025

Key Points

1. Bank of America

NYSE: BAC

Key Data Points

2. JPMorgan Chase

NYSE: JPM

Key Data Points

3. U.S. Bancorp

NYSE: USB

Key Data Points

Related investing topics

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