Zacks Industry Rank Analysis Highlights: Private Bancorp, Sterling Bancshares TX, Peoples Bancorp of Ohio, J.P Morgan and Bank of America

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – November 30, 2009 – Zacks.com releases the latest Zacks Industry Rank. Stocks featured in this week’s analysis include Private Bancorp (PVTB), Sterling Bancshares TX (SBIB), Peoples Bancorp of Ohio (PEBO), J.P Morgan (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC).

Zacks Industry Rank Analysis is written by Dirk Van Dijk, CFA, Chief Equity Strategist for Zacks.com.

This week: Avoid Regional Domestic Banks

The Zacks Ranks for the regional banks look even worse than the ranks for the real estate companies themselves. The 206 total industries have seven related to the regional banks, with five regional industries plus one for the major regional banks that cover several different regions. With the exception of the major regionals and the banks in the Northeast -- both of which are neutral and tied for 104th place with average scores of 3.00 -- the banks all look downright ugly.

The worst of the bunch, by a hair, are the Western Regional banks in 198th place with an average score of 3.64, followed by the Midwest in 197th place and a score of 3.51, the Southeast (180th place, 3.31) and the Southwest (177th, 3.29). I don’t think the differences between them are all that significant -- just stay away from them all. Some of the larger names among the banks with Zacks Rank #5 scores include: Private Bancorp (PVTB), Sterling Bancshares TX (SBIB) and Peoples Bancorp of Ohio (PEBO). None of them will be mistaken for J.P Morgan (JPM) or Bank of America (BAC).

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Contact: Dirk Van Dijk, CFA
Company: Zacks.com
Phone: 312-265-9211
Email: pr@zacks.com
Visit: www.zacks.com

Read the full analyst report on PVTB

Read the full analyst report on SBIB

Read the full analyst report on PEBO

Read the full analyst report on JPM

Read the full analyst report on BAC