Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Price Target Cut to $56.00 by Analysts at TD Cowen

Key Points

• TD Cowen cut Bank of America’s price target from $60 to $56 and maintained a “hold” rating, implying about 9.1% upside from the prior close.
• Despite the downgrade, analyst sentiment remains favorable overall: 20 analysts rate BAC a “buy” and six rate it a “hold,” producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average target of $62.96.
• Bank of America’s latest quarter fell slightly short of expectations, with EPS of $1.08 versus $1.10 expected and revenue of $29.96 billion versus $30.58 billion estimated; revenue nevertheless increased 3.2% year over year.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at TD Cowen from $60.00 to $56.00 in a report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a "hold" rating on the financial services provider's stock. TD Cowen's price objective points to a potential upside of 9.12% from the stock's previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on BAC. Weiss Ratings restated a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Bank of America in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Evercore set a $62.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Bank of America from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $61.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Twenty equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $62.96.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.1%

BAC stock opened at $51.32 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $358.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.74, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21. Bank of America has a fifty-two week low of $46.12 and a fifty-two week high of $65.22. The business has a 50-day moving average of $59.51 and a 200-day moving average of $56.69.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.10 by ($0.02). Bank of America had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 17.56%. The firm had revenue of $29.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.06 EPS. The company's revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America will post 4.60 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of America

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.6% during the second quarter. Total Clarity Wealth Management Inc. now owns 4,889 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $279,000 after purchasing an additional 168 shares during the period. Orca Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Orca Wealth Management LLC now owns 35,087 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,999,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. raised its position in Bank of America by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Financial Consulate Inc. now owns 4,741 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $270,000 after buying an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bedel Financial Consulting Inc. now owns 16,456 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $938,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GatePass Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 3.6% during the first quarter. GatePass Capital LLC now owns 5,451 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Bank of America

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.

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