Top Financial Stocks Of January 2024 (2024)

While formally counted as financial stock, in some ways Berkshire Hathaway defies categorization. This holding company owns a portfolio of name-brand companies spanning industries in nearly every corner of the economy, from recreational vehicle manufacturers, utilities and insurance firms, to real estate brokerages, newspaper publishing and retail.

And beyond any one portfolio company or line of business, Berkshire is the corporate incarnation of Warren Buffett, who is without question the most famous living investor. Buffet bought Berkshire when it was a struggling textile manufacturer in 1964. Since that time, Buffett has built it into one of the largest and the most unusual companies in the United States.

The world’s largest financial stock by market capitalization, Visa Inc. is a multinational behemoth that processes trillions in payments each year and has issued roughly 3.6 billion credit cards. It also provides payment solutions for consumers and businesses and works with banks and other credit card issuers to launch new cards. From its headquarters in San Francisco, Visa supports customers in over 200 countries and territories.

JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in both the United States and in the world by market capitalization. Named after John Pierpoint Morgan, a famous 19th-century banker and financier, the New York City-based company has played a leading role in shaping the U.S. and global financial industry.

JPM provies investment banking services and commercial banking under the Chase Bank brand name. While JPMorgan Chase’s revenue took a hit during the Covid pandemic, its shares lost much less than other financial stocks because of its strong balance sheet and diverse revenue streams.

Mastercard is a leading payment processing and credit card company, second only to Visa. It provides payment solutions to individuals, businesses and governments while also working with banks and other card issuers to set up new programs. In addition, it offers data analytics based on transaction records to furnish businesses with spending trends and insights.

MA has begun moving into the cryptocurrency space, perhaps most notably from its recent acquisition of CipherTrace, an intelligence firm working to prevent fraud and protect digital assets.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Bank of America is the second largest bank in the U.S. Like JPM, it offers commercial banking services to individuals and small businesses as well as investment banking. During the financial crisis of 2008, Bank of America purchased the investment bank Merrill Lynch, which it now uses to run wealth management services.

BAC’s earnings and revenues both beat expectations in 2021, thanks to solid loan growth and a particularly impressive performance from its investment banking fee income. During this stretch, it also grew its reserves, putting it in a stronger financial position going forward.

The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, commonly referred to as ICBC, is China’s largest bank and the largest financial company outside of the United States. From its headquarters in Beijing, ICBC provides banking services to both individuals and companies, with 680 million individual banking clients and 8.6 million corporate clients. It has won awards from publications like Forbes, Fortune and The Banker for being one of the best banks in the world.

Wells Fargo is the third largest bank in the U.S. by market cap. Established in 1852 during the California Gold Rush, Wells Fargo went on to open branches throughout the West (and the world), and the company still maintains its headquarters in San Francisco. WFC offers individual, small business and commercial banking through its thousands of bank branches.

In 2020, the company not only had to deal with lost revenue due to the pandemic, but it also faced a multibillion fine from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for opening accounts for customers without their permission.

Bank of China Limited is an international banking conglomerate founded in 1912 and headquartered in Beijing, China. In addition to the Chinese mainland, BACHF operates subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and elsewhere. All told, the conglomerate deals in commercial banking, personal banking, investment banking as well as treasury operations.

Investors must keep in mind that BACHF is a Chinese company trading as an American Depository Receipt (ADR) on the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market. Although OTC stocks can be more illiquid than stocks traded on major American exchanges, a company the size of BACHF shouldn’t face those same limitations.

HDFC Bank Limited operates globally in three primary segments: wholesale banking, retail banking and treasury services. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, HDB offers its services to a number of markets, including India, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Dubai. The company was incorporated in 1994, which is relatively recent compared to many other banking conglomerates.

Given its assets, HDFC Bank is India’s largest bank and the second-largest company by market capitalization on India’s stock exchange. The bank has gone through a number of acquisitions and mergers in its history, the most recent being with India’s Housing Development Finance Corporation, HDB’s previous parent company.

Since its founding in 1935, Morgan Stanley has become one of the most iconic brands on Wall Street. It is the largest standalone investment bank in the world by market cap and offers services like sales and trading for investments, wealth management, market research and access to capital markets for corporations.

In addition, in 2020, Morgan Stanley acquired the electronic trading platform E-Trade, which now operates as a subsidiary of the parent company.