JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) has recaptured its crown as America’s best basic bank, with a second-quarter earnings release that beat all earnings estimates.

The bank holding company said it earned $7 billion, $1.82 per share, on revenue of $26.4 billion during the three months ending in June. That compared with net income of $6.2 billion, $1.55 per share, and revenue of $25.2 billion during the same quarter a year ago.

Analysts had been expecting earnings of just $1.57 per share, although there was a “whisper” that they might come in at $1.65 per share. The shares had risen 10.3% during the previous three months, in anticipation of good news, but this was great news.

Best of all, it was not a one-off, spurred by something like stock trading or deal making. This was an earnings report based on simple, blocking-and-tackling banking.

The New Wells Fargo

Since Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) was hit by scandals involving phony accounts last year, JPMorgan Chase’s value in relation to its banking peers has taken off. Late last year, it was fighting to keep its equity value over its book value. Now its “price to book” is up to 1.41, nearly level with Wells’ 1.55. Wells had been the industry’s leader in this strength ratio throughout the decade.

A closer look at the release shows that consumer banking, done through Chase branches and credit cards, was especially strong, while core loan growth was 9%. The bank’s return on common equity was 12%, up from 10% a year ago.

Best of all, legal troubles stemming from the 2007 mortgage crisis and 2008 financial meltdown appear to be well behind it. The quarterly results included a $406 million after-tax benefit from a settlement dating back to the FDIC receivership of Washington Mutual. In past years, the bank was losing billions of dollars per year on fines and lawyers.

This is reflected in the bank’s reputation rating, where it is now well ahead of the other big banks — a rating of 69.2 compared with 65.4 at Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C), 57.2 for Bank of America Corp. (NYSE:BAC), and just 48.6 for Wells, according to American Banker and the Reputation Institute.

Uneasy Hangs the Crown

Despite the outstanding numbers, traders were not snapping up JPM shares in pre-market trading. They were down 2%, meaning you can still buy them at a price-to-earnings multiple of around 14, and get a yield of 2.2%, compared with 2.3% on a 10-year U.S. government bond.

There are plenty of excuses for this. Interest rates aren’t rising as previously forecast. The shares were up substantially during the quarter and so the good results were said to be in the stock. There remain concerns over global growth and U.S. growth.

But recessions are not usually found in the same sector twice in a row. The last recession was centered in banking, while the previous one was centered in technology. Measures indicating possible trouble, like delinquency and charge-off rates on credit card loans, are trending downward and mortgage delinquencies are at their lowest level since the financial crisis.

Analysts continue to pound the table for JPM stock and CEO Jamie Dimon has just seen off the man seen as his heir-apparent, so bad news seems unlikely in the near future.

The only note of caution on the JP Morgan outlook, in fact, comes from Dimon himself, who warned recently that unwinding of quantitative easing, now underway, could represent unexpected risks. It’s the kind of warning you expect to hear from a sound banker.

Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romance The Reluctant Detective Travels in Time, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at danablankenhorn@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn. As of this writing he owned no shares in companies mentioned in this story.