jefferies analysts on tuesday said morgan stanley goldman sachs group inc bank of new york mellon corp and state street corp remain more attractive than other big banks ahead of firstquarter earnings season jefferies analysts said they prefer goldman sachs gs and morgan stanley ms  as well as bny mellon bk and state street stt  as ways to have exposure to any potential positive around deposit flows to larger banks those banks also offer less net interest income risk and better capital positioning the analysts said the research update from jefferies came as jpmorgan chase  co jpm  wells fargo  co wfc and citigroup inc c are due to kick off the firstquarter earnings reports from the big banks on friday “the bank stock narrative remains challenging but we expect some lessbad deposit anecdotes through firstquarter earnings that will hopefully ease worstcase concerns” jefferies analyst ken usdin said in a research note “still the path for the economy regulatory changes and june stress tests weigh on sentimentmultiples” jefferies reiterated its buy ratings on goldman morgan stanley state street and bny mellon the big trust banks state street and bny mellon will benefit from servicing and management fees as a relatively protected source of revenue along with more limited credit risk and healthy balance sheets analysts said and with large wealthmanagement and brokerage revenue morgan stanley and goldman may avoid the potential negative impact on net interest income from loans in the banking sector the two marquee investment banks also offer stable preprovision net revenue minimal credit risk and strong capital bases analysts said jefferies also reiterated its hold rating on bank of america corp bac and cut the stock’s price target by 9 to 30 a share jefferies reiterated a hold rating on citigroup and hiked its price target by 9 to 49 a share jefferies repeated its hold rating on jpmorgan chase and cut its price target by 16 to 124 a share it cut its price target on wells fargo by 22 to 36 a share and reiterated its hold rating on the stock jefferies analysts also upgraded new york community bancorp inc nycb to buy from hold amid the challenging environment for banks in the past month after the collapse of silicon valley bank and signature bank of new york analyst casey haire said jefferies likes nycb’s balancesheet positioning given dramatic improvement in the bank’s liquidity profile from its pending acquisition of signature bank assets the federal deposit insurance corpbrokered acquisition of signature bank will also provide nycb with “increased scale and diversification” haire said jefferies expects the bank currently valued at a discount to its peers to “close the multiple gap” jefferies also highlighted the bank’s expected dividend yield of about 8 which it described as “attractive” also read loan growth lower margins cloud the skies over big banks analyst