Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock Bumped Up to Outperform by Robert W. Baird

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) was upgraded by equities researchers at Robert W. Baird from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has a $62.00 price objective on the financial services provider’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 20.65% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on BAC. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $61.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays set a $68.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $62.96.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.0%

Shares of BAC stock opened at $51.39 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $59.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $56.69. Bank of America has a 12-month low of $46.12 and a 12-month high of $65.22. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market cap of $359.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced 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). The firm had revenue of $29.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.58 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 12.20%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.06 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America will post 4.60 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Turim 21 Investimentos Ltda. acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth about $25,000. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 167.6% in the 2nd quarter. Cherry Tree Wealth Management LLC now owns 479 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 69.9% in the second quarter. Principia Wealth Advisory LLC now owns 530 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 218 shares during the last quarter. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 199.1% during the 1st quarter. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. now owns 658 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Key Bank of America News

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.

About Bank of America

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.