Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Robert W. Baird

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was upgraded by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $62.00 price target on the financial services provider’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 20.67% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on BAC. Barclays dropped their target price on Bank of America from $72.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday. Argus set a $70.00 price objective on Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Bank of America from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $72.00 target price on Bank of America in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.96.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.0%

NYSE:BAC traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $51.38. The company had a trading volume of 11,203,709 shares, compared to its average volume of 37,464,652. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $56.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. Bank of America has a 1 year low of $46.12 and a 1 year high of $65.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $359.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.80, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.10 by ($0.02). Bank of America had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The company had revenue of $29.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.58 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.06 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Bank of America will post 4.60 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 2nd quarter worth $2,571,060,000. Deutsche Bank AG acquired a new stake in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,359,172,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth $2,313,953,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth $939,807,000. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth $916,398,000. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Bank of America this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Despite the selloff, Bank of America received an upgrade from Robert W. Baird to “outperform” with a $62 price target, implying meaningful potential upside. Bank of America analyst upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Keefe, Bruyette & Woods maintained an “outperform” rating, while lowering its price target to $65 from $70. The target remains well above BAC’s current level. Keefe Bruyette and Woods price target
• Positive Sentiment: Underlying businesses showed resilience: net interest income rose 8% year over year to $16.4 billion, average loans increased 6%, and Merrill Lynch’s fee-based advisory assets reached a record $1.9 trillion. Consumer banking and wealth management helped offset weaker trading activity.
• Neutral Sentiment: Bank of America ranked highly among U.S. mega-bank quantitative ratings, and all four major U.S. banks raised dividends this year. However, investors are comparing the strength of each bank’s capital cushion before assigning value to the payouts. Major banks dividend comparison
• Negative Sentiment: Third-quarter adjusted EPS was $1.08 versus the $1.10 consensus, while revenue of roughly $30.0 billion missed estimates near $30.6 billion. Investment-banking fees and sales-and-trading revenue weakened, expenses grew faster than revenue, and the provision for credit losses was $1.3 billion. BAC Q3 earnings analysis
• Negative Sentiment: The largest overhang is more than $1.2 billion in penalties for anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance failures, including missed reporting of more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions. The non-tax-deductible charge reduced quarterly EPS by approximately $0.17 and raised concerns about lingering remediation costs and management controls. Bank of America regulatory penalty
• Negative Sentiment: Bank of America is also hiring about 1,000 contractors to address software vulnerabilities exposed by Anthropic’s Mythos AI model. The effort, together with compliance remediation, added hundreds of millions of dollars to third-quarter costs. Investor-law firms have separately announced securities investigations, adding further reputational risk.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader conditions added pressure as hotter-than-expected inflation pushed Treasury yields higher and increased fears that interest rates may remain elevated, contributing to a wider market selloff.

Bank of America Company Profile

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is a diversified financial services company serving individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies and large corporations. Its principal businesses include consumer banking, wealth and investment management, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and sales and trading.

Through its banking and financial services businesses, the company offers deposit accounts, credit cards, mortgages, home equity products, consumer and business loans, payment services, treasury management, brokerage services and investment advice.