Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Earns "Outperform" Rating from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods

Key Points

• Bank of America has received an "outperform" rating from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, along with a new target price of $58.00, indicating a potential upside of 11.42%.
• In its latest quarterly earnings report, the company exceeded analysts' expectations with $1.06 earnings per share and reported a revenue of $28.09 billion, a 10.8% increase year-over-year.
• The board of Bank of America has approved a significant $40.00 billion stock repurchase program, suggesting confidence in the company's valuation.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)'s stock had its "outperform" rating reissued by investment analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $58.00 target price on the financial services provider's stock, up from their prior target price of $57.00. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods' target price would suggest a potential upside of 11.42% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on BAC. Piper Sandler set a $55.00 price target on shares of Bank of America and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday. HSBC increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Seaport Global Securities increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Twenty-one research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $56.14.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $52.06. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,103,149 shares, compared to its average volume of 40,571,109. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $49.89 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80. Bank of America has a one year low of $33.06 and a one year high of $52.88. The stock has a market cap of $385.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.13. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The company had revenue of $28.09 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.05 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 11.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This trade represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America by 0.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 148,176,755 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $6,982,863,000 after acquiring an additional 403,652 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of America during the second quarter worth $5,091,641,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Bank of America by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,417,407 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,521,218,000 after acquiring an additional 803,570 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 5.2% during the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 51,405,673 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,432,516,000 after acquiring an additional 2,557,943 shares during the period. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in Bank of America by 45.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,007,718,000 after buying an additional 14,960,086 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, large corporations, and governments worldwide. It operates in four segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM), Global Banking, and Global Markets.

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