What a stressed commercial real estate market means for these exposed bank stocks

Banks are facing mounting uncertainty as the commercial real estate (CRE) sector continues to struggle. But, tailwinds in our financial names should help safeguard their bottom lines. Club names Wells Fargo (WFC) and Morgan Stanley (MS) have bright spots in their operations that can offset potential weakness from CRE exposure. We’re optimistic about green shoots in Morgan Stanley’s dealmaking and the continued maturing of its wealth management business , along with progress in Wells Fargo’s multiyear recovery plans to expand its balance sheet and put past misdeeds behind it . Commercial real estate landscape Higher interest rates, tightening credit conditions and elevated office vacancies are weighing down the estimated $21 trillion commercial real estate sector . Many banks have exposure to CRE through loans. Fluctuations in property values and market conditions can impact their loan portfolios and asset quality. Economic downturns can lead to higher default rates and loan losses, affecting a bank’s profitability and overall financial health as well. Banks provide financing to investors and developers in the sector, making them vulnerable to weaker market cycles too. A lagging commercial real estate market can strain a bank’s capital reserves while a stronger market can boost incomes from lending and fees. Tomasz Piskorski, a property market expert and professor at Columbia Business School, said the key overhang on the banking sector is the central bank’s monetary tightening, and trouble in CRE is the “icing on the cake.” The Federal Reserve has hiked borrowing costs 11 times since March 2022 — from near-zero on the fed funds overnight bank lending rate to the target range of 5.25% to 5.5% — all in a bid to combat sticky inflation. The midpoint of the current range is the highest level in more than 22 years. “U.S. banks are now in a very difficult position and the main factor driving this difficult position is high interest rates,” Piskorski told CNBC in an interview. “This is one of the main problems affecting commercial real estate because a lot of these buildings were written at a lower rate and now they have to refinance to higher rates.” While there’s reason for concern in the broader commercial real estate market, we see the most pronounced challenges unfolding in offices. Work-from-home trends and tech layoffs have led to increased vacancies, decreased demand, and drastic reductions in property values. Office vacancy rates reached 18.6% in the first quarter of 2023. That’s 5.5% higher than when the Covid pandemic began to hit the U.S. during the first quarter of 2020. Back in July, Jim Cramer said the doom and gloom around CRE is a real threat but exaggerated, describing it at the time as a “well-overdone crisis” Morgan Stanley’s exposure MS YTD mountain Morgan Stanley (MS) year-to-date performance In reporting its second-quarter financial results, Morgan Stanley said that “increases in provisions for credit losses were primarily driven by credit deteriorations in the commercial real estate sector as well as modest growth across the portfolio.” The bank’s provision for credit losses rose to $161 million in Q2 from $101 million in the second quarter of 2022. Tailwinds spurred by a resurgence in Morgan Stanley’s investment banking (IB) services, however, could offset CRE market weakness going forward. There have been signals of more mergers and acquisitions (M & A) and initial public offerings (IPOs), which could boost this dormant, and crucial, part of the bank’s business. Semiconductor designer Arm Holdings (ARM) had a blockbuster listing earlier this month, the largest IPO since electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive (RIVN) in 2021. Grocery delivery service Instacart (CART) and marketing automation Klaviyo (KVYO) made Klaviyo mad their debuts shortly after Arm. IB has lagged in recent quarters amid macro uncertainty and recession concerns. The global M & A value declined by 44% in the first five months of 2023, per data analytics firm GlobalData , with firms pulling back on dealmaking in order to preserve capital in the face of an economic downturn. During the Barclays conference earlier this month, management at Morgan Stanley said that capital markets are set to improve next year. This could boost IB broadly because companies will feel less conservative about how they allocate funds. “I would say we are more confident now than any time this year about an improved outlook for 2024,” the team said. “I think it’s clear to us now that the first half of the second quarter was probably the low point in sentiment around capital markets and M & A.” Still, there’s a lot of uncertainty around the U.S. economy as it’s unclear when the Fed will stop hiking interest rates. Academics like Piskorski, however, contend that pressure on traditional investment banking will likely continue. “We’re in a very different environment than two years ago. I would expect much fewer IPOs,” he said. “Cost of capital is much higher. Investor appetite to invest in companies, especially companies that are not profitable, is very different.” Wells Fargo’s exposure WFC YTD mountain Wells Fargo (WFC) year-to-date performance Offices represent around 22% of Wells Fargo’s outstanding commercial property loans and 3% of its entire loan book. It has one of the largest portfolios when it comes to CRE in the country, with more than $154 billion in loans outstanding and $33 billion of that consists of office loans. According to its latest quarterly earnings release, Wells Fargo boosted allowances for losses connected to its commercial property loans, driven mostly by the firm’s exposure to offices, flagging a $949 million increase in their credit loss allowance. However, management said that significant losses have not been observed so far. For context, banks typically boost reserves for credit losses as a preventative measure to curb losses from borrowers who could default on their loans. This, in theory, gives Wells Fargo the extra capital to absorb credit losses during a market downturn or periods of extreme volatility. For context, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) also bulked up its reserves in anticipation of rising office property loan losses. Wells Fargo stands to benefit from its multiyear recovery plan once U.S. regulators decide to lift its asset cap, which would increase its balance sheets, along with its valuation that’s providing a cushion to any downward earnings estimates. Still, it remains unclear when regulators may lift these rules. “The losses are still quite small,” Chief Financial Officer Michael Santomassimo said in July. “We do expect that there will be more weakness in the market, and it’s going to take a while to play out.” CEO Charlie Scharf said the bank sustained “higher losses in commercial real estate, primarily in the office portfolio.” He added, “While we haven’t seen significant losses in our office portfolio-to-date, we are reserving for the weakness that we expect to play out in that market over time.” Still, revenue from Wells Fargo’s commercial real estate business rose to $1.33 billion in the second quarter, up 26% from 2022 and 2% higher from the last quarter. The banking giant attributed the gains to “higher interest rates and higher loan balances.” Wells Fargo may not stand to gain as much as Morgan Stanley from an uptick in investment banking, but the comments made by management during the Barclays conference indicate ongoing signs of recovery for the bank. “A lack of bad news turned out to be good news,” Jeff Marks, CNBC Investing Club’s Director of Portfolio Analysis, said during a Morning Meeting earlier this month. Wells Fargo execs emphasized the bank’s solid forward guidance while signaling an improved efficiency ratio as the Wall Street giant continues to cut costs via various restructuring plans like layoffs. Santomassimo said the macro picture is “much better than people would have expected at this point” as well. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long WFC, MS. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. 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