When it comes to big bank stocks for the long haul, no one beats JPMorgan Chase (JPM). Under the leadership of CEO Jamie Dimon, JPM has outperformed peers — and the broader market — even as it navigated the great financial crisis and a worldwide pandemic.
Dimon, who was named CEO at the end of 2005, spent the early years of his tenure getting the nation’s largest bank by assets ready for the storm. While competitors were leveraging up on subprime mortgage-backed securities, Dimon ordered JPM to reduce its exposure. The conservative, and even contrarian, approach to risk management paid off.
When the financial system started to collapse, Dimon’s “fortress balance sheet” philosophy not only allowed JPM to survive when other banks failed, it was able to come to the rescue. In March 2008, with backing from the Federal Reserve, JPM acquired Bear Stearns for a fire-sale price of $2 per share. (It was later raised to $10.) Six months later, JPM bought the banking operations of Washington Mutual — the largest bank failure in U.S. history — from the FDIC.
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Not that the years after the crisis were much fun for JPMorgan Chase or its shareholders. JPM paid billions in fines, largely related to the mortgages originated by the companies it bought. A tougher regulatory landscape, Federal Reserve stress tests and limits on capital returns to shareholders were a headwind for the financial industry, and JPM was not immune.
By the late 2010s, however, JPMorgan’s diversified model offering consumer banking, commercial banking, investment banking and asset management proved to be a big-time moneymaker. Rising interest rates also helped. The bottom line was that the bank was once again able to lavish cash on shareholders through aggressive stock buybacks and steadily rising dividends.
And the good times continue to roll on. The higher rate environment has done wonders for JPMorgan Chase’s net interest income (NII), or the difference between what banks pay for deposits and charge for loans. In 2023, NII increased a record 34% year-over-year to more than $89.3 billion. It’s currently growing at a pace of more than 3% a year, topping $95.4 billion in 2025.
The bottom line on JPM stock?
On that count, JPM has been a winner. Over its entire life as a publicly traded company, shares delivered an annualized total return (price change plus reinvested dividends) of 13.4%. The S&P 500 generated 11.2% annualized over the same period.
JPM’s outperformance is even more impressive over shorter time frames, beating the broader market by wide margins over the past one-, three-, five-, 10- and 15-year periods.
Which brings us to what $1,000 invested in JPM stock 20 years ago would be worth today. Have a look at the above chart, and you’ll see that a grand socked away in this Buy-rated Dow Jones stock two decades ago would today be worth about $12,500 — or an annualized total return of 13.5%.
The same amount invested in an S&P 500 ETF would be worth about $8,400, or 11.2% annualized.
As for where JPM stock goes from here, Wall Street is mostly bullish. Of the 23 analysts covering the financial stock surveyed by S&P Global Market Intelligence, nine call it a Strong Buy, three say Buy and 11 have it at Hold. That works out to a consensus recommendation of Buy, with mixed conviction.
Speaking for the bulls, Argus Research analyst Stephen Biggar, who rates shares at Buy, believes the market doesn’t fully appreciate JPM’s strengths.
“We like JPM among the large banks given its better lending-growth profile, strong credit-card franchise, and expected market-share gains in its capital-markets businesses,” Biggar writes. “We view the current forward multiple as undervaluing the franchise.”
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