Oppenheimer: JPMorgan Chase 'Still Cheap'

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) is "stumbling along" at a slightly higher level than its peers, and a recent selloff in its shares is overdone, an analyst said Friday.

Oppenheimer's Chris Kotowski reiterated a Buy rating and $74 target, calling the company's in-line fourth-quarter results "not the end of the world."

The bank's shares are off more than 6 percent since posting earnings earlier this week, but changed hands recently at $55.54, up 1 percent from Thursday's close.

Recent earnings were below Kotowski's own estimate because of higher-than-expected expenses.

The analyst shaved his 2015 earnings estimate slightly to $5.46 a share.

Yet JPMorgan's risk-adjusted return is between 1 percent and 2 percent higher than its peer group of banks.

"We still think the stock is cheap," Kotowski said.

The company continues to struggle with lower trading volumes in what Kotowski called a "secular" trend, but non-performing assets fell in the recent quarter and consumer-loan delinquency numbers were stable.

"In short, we think asset quality trends still look very, very good," Kotowski said.