Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is scheduled to report its third-quarter financial results before the markets open on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.33 in earnings per share (EPS) on $20.77 billion in revenue. The same period from the previous year had a net loss of $0.04 per share on $21.43 billion in revenue.
This company has continued a methodical march back to financial health and is a true big money center bank liked by Jefferies. Bank of America is a ubiquitous presence in the United States, providing various banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small and middle market businesses, institutional investors, corporations and governments in the United States and internationally.
Operating 5,100 banking centers, 16,300 ATMs, call centers and online and mobile banking platforms, the company continues to open new markets and expand share, which Jefferies feels the company excels in. The Merrill Lynch brokerage arm has continued to supply the bank with outstanding revenues and growth.
With the potential for strong commercial lending and credit card originations, and trading at nearly 10 times 2016 estimated earnings, the stock makes good sense now.
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A few analysts issued calls ahead of Bank of America’s earnings report:
- JPMorgan reiterated a Buy rating.
- Sandler O’Neill reiterated a Hold rating.
- Oppenheimer reiterated an Outperform rating and lowered its price target to $19 from $21.
- Goldman Sachs has a Buy rating but lowered its price target to $19 from $20.
So far in 2015, Bank of America has underperformed the market, with the stock is down 12.4% year to date, while over the past 52 weeks the stock is only down 4.7%.
Shares of Bank of America were down 0.3% at $15.48 on Tuesday afternoon. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $18.90 and a 52-week trading range of $14.60 to $18.48.
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