Lackluster Results Don't Help The BB&T Story

BB&T (NYSE:BBT), like almost every bank, has gotten a bump since the election. Even so, it has been outperformed by many of its peers since the election (up around 18% versus 19% to 35% for U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), Fifth Third (NASDAQ:FITB), Regions (NYSE:RF), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), and PNC (NYSE:PNC)), and fourth quarter results weren't a particularly strong rebuttal to the idea that BB&T has near-term growth challenges.

I believe that BB&T has been taking steps recently, and will continue do so into 2017, that will better position the company for long-term growth, but it's harder to argue that there will be incoming outperformance to support higher multiples in the near term. Although I still like this bank, I think the valuation already embeds higher growth than is expected from the likes of Fifth Third, U.S. Bancorp, PNC, and Wells Fargo, and I can't make a compelling "buy this instead of that" argument at this time.

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Lackluster Results Don't Help The BB&T Story