Oppenheimer analyst Chris Kotowski tells investors in a research note that the U.S. banking group is on solid footing with balance sheets less risky than at any time over the last 33 years the firm covered the group and says his favorite bank stocks are Outperform-rated Bank of America (BAC), Citi (C), CIT (CIT) and Goldman Sachs (GS). However, Kotowski notes that banks are trading at an average relative P/E of just ~66% relative to the S&P 500 and returning to a historical avg valuation of 73%-80% range would imply over a thousand basis points of outperformance by the group. In his view, the U.S. banks are, on the whole, in "very good" shape.