Banking, finance, and taxes

What to Watch When Bank of America Reports Tuesday

Chris Lange

Published: April 15, 2019 12:10 pm

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 10:06 pm

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates are calling for $0.65 in earnings per share (EPS) and $23.3 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $0.62 in EPS and $23.27 billion in revenue.

The company posted solid fourth-quarter results back in January. One of the big numbers from that report was Bank of America’s book value per share, which came in at $25.13, while tangible book value per common share was $17.91.

In terms of its segments for the fourth quarter, the bank reported as follows:

• Consumer Banking saw its total revenues increase 10.3% to $9.88 billion year over year.
• Global Wealth and Investment Management total revenues increased 6.6% to $4.99 billion.
• Global Banking revenues increased 0.6% to $5.05 billion.
• Global Markets revenue decreased 5.5% to $3.21 billion.

Also in that time, overall credit quality remained strong across both the consumer and commercial portfolios, with the provision for credit losses at $905 million, down from $1.00 billion last year.

Bank of America operates some 5,100 banking centers, 16,300 ATMs, call centers, online and a mobile banking platform. It said its quarterly profit tripled to a record of $7.3 billion. The bank also says it bought back $26 billion in common stock. A strong performance from the company’s consumer banking business, as well as lower corporate taxes, helped drive Bank of America’s earnings.

Excluding Monday’s move, Bank of America had outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 22% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually down just over 1%.

A few analysts weighed in on Bank of America prior to the report:

• HSBC has a Hold rating with a $29 price target.
• Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating and a $40 target.
• UBS Group has a Buy rating with a $33 price target.
• Jefferies also has a Buy rating with a $33 price target.
• Wells Fargo’s Buy rating comes with a $36 target.
• Barclays has a Hold rating.

Shares of Bank of America were last seen down about 1% at $29.93 on Monday, in a 52-week range of $22.66 to $31.91. The consensus price target is $33.17.