明星基金经理的选择：2013年15大金股

美国合众银行

蒂姆·哈奇BBH 核心优选基金

股票代码：(USB, 财富500强)

股票类型：大盘股

    大多数银行都很复杂，但美国合众银行（U.S. Bancorp）靠保持简单本色，实现了大发展。蒂姆·哈奇管理的35亿美元BBH核心优选基金（BBH Core Select）自2007年以来年均回报率6.4%，轻松击败了标普500指数1.4%的年均涨幅。美国合众银行直接明了的业务模式深深地吸引了他。他说，美国合众银行不依赖交易和投资银行，靠传统方式赚钱：吸纳储蓄，发放贷款以及客户财富管理。“如果让监管部门许个愿，”他说。“一定是希望所有银行都像美国合众银行那样简单。”

    当然，这家全美第五大银行在行业危机中也并不是全然无事：新的监管规定和创纪录的低利率（抑制银行利润，因为银行不能对贷款加收太多利息）。但美国合众银行仍然受益于庞大的支付处理业务，即帮助零售商户处理电子交易。“这是一个不错的利润来源，无需太多资本，”哈奇表示。他补充称，在美国所有的大型商业银行中，美国合众银行的权益收益率最高，资产回报率蕞高。但该股当前11.8倍的静态市盈率仍低于行业(本身已低)12.6倍的市盈率。

    --M.K.

U.S. Bancorp

Tim Hartch BBH Core Select

Ticker: (USB, Fortune 500)

Small and large pick: Large-caps

    Most banks are complicated. U.S. Bancorp has thrived by keeping it simple. Tim Hartch, whose $3.5 billion BBH Core Select fund (BBTRX) has returned 6.4% a year since 2007, easily besting the S&P 500's 1.4% annual return, is impressed by U.S. Bancorp's straightforward business model. Instead of relying on trading and investment banking, he says, it makes money the old-fashioned way: collecting deposits, issuing loans, and managing people's wealth. "If the regulators could have their wish," he says, "all banks would look like U.S. Bancorp."

    The country's fifth-largest bank isn't immune to its sector's challenges: new regulations and record-low interest rates (which compress profits, since banks can't charge much for loans). But it is insulated by its sizable payment-processing business, which helps retailers handle electronic transactions. "It's a nice earnings stream that doesn't require a significant amount of capital," says Hartch. Of all the big commercial banks in the country, he adds, U.S. Bancorp reaps the highest return on equity and the highest return on assets. Yet with a P/E of 11.8 times trailing earnings, it trades below the (already low) sector P/E of 12.6.

    --M.K.