These bank stocks that surged 32% in the last two weeks

A financial crisis can cause the entire stock sector to tumbling. It's been shown that timing the market can be difficult, if not impossible. If you move to the sideline, the tendency is to return too late after a rally has started. Recent action highlights what may be a golden opportunity for discerning stock pickers. Below is a screen of analysts ratings and price targets for U.S. bank stocks.

SVB Financial Group's SIVB, announcement on March 8, that it had lost nearly $2 billion while selling securities to raise cash was the catalyst for a banking industry crisis that is less than two weeks old.

During that period, the subsidiaries of two of the index's components, Signature Bank Corp. of New York SBNY and SIVB, were shut down by state regulators. A group of banks, led by JPMorgan Chase Co., and CEO Jamie Dimon, are trying to put together a deal to save First Republic Bank FRC, of San Francisco.

Shares of New York Community Bancorp were released on Monday. The NYB, shot up 32%, after NYCB purchased deposits, loans and branches of the failed Signature Bank from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at a deep discount. The deal makes NYCB less dependent on wholesale funding and improves its focus on higher-yielding loans. Even after Monday's share price increase, it appears to have lowered the risk that the bank may have to cut its dividend, which was a high 7.90%.

The deal with the FDIC can be very accretive for banks in a position to help, according to KBW analyst Christopher McGratty, who upgraded NYCB to an outperform rating on Sunday.

The FDIC hasn't announced a deal to sell the assets of the failed Silicon Valley Bank.

There were 78 banks or bank holding companies in the Russell 3000 Index RUA, which had total assets of at least $20 billion as of December 31. For this screen, we have defined bank holding companies the same way we did for this list of banks that had the best average returns on assets over the past 15 years.

For the new screen, we narrowed the list of 78 banks or bank holding companies to 51 that are covered by at least nine analysts working for brokerage firms polled by FactSet.

There are 51, 24 of which have a majority buy or equivalent rating.

Here they are ranked by upside potential implied by consensus price targets:

Tomi Kilgore has a detailed guide to the wealth of information available for free on the MarketWatch quote page.

Western Alliance Bancorp WAL of Phoenix is on the top of the list, with analysts expecting the stock to triple from its close on March 20. This is the stock that dropped the most between March 7 and March 20. McGratty has an outperform rating on the Western Alliance with a price target of $85, which is higher than the consensus target. He mentioned significant deposit inflows and new account openings over the last few days in a note to clients on March 17.

There is a chance that patience may be required for investors to expect a continuing period of volatility for bank stocks. If you see any stocks of interest, it is best to do your own research to understand a company's long-term strategy and form your own opinion.