Banking, finance, and taxes

What to Expect When Bank of America Reports Wednesday

Chris Lange

Published: July 16, 2019 11:05 am

Last Updated: March 13, 2020 10:13 pm

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is scheduled to release its second-quarter financial results before the markets open on Wednesday. The consensus estimates are calling for $0.71 in earnings per share (EPS) and $23.23 billion in revenue. The same period of last year reportedly had $0.63 in EPS and $22.76 billion in revenue.

Bank of America is one of the top 10 banks repurchasing stock in the coming years. This megabank said that its board of directors approved plans for the company to return as much as $37 billion to common stockholders over the next four quarters in dividends and common stock repurchases. The bank plans to increase its quarterly common dividend by 20% to $0.18 per share.

It also has been authorized to repurchase roughly $30.9 billion in its common shares, and it would include approximately $0.9 billion in repurchases to offset shares awarded under employee stock options during the same period.

Excluding Tuesday’s move, Bank of America had performed more or less in line with the broad markets, with its stock up about 18.6% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the stock was actually up only 1.6%.

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

• JPMorgan has an Overweight rating with a $29.50 price target.
• BMO Capital Markets has an Outperform rating and a $37 target.
• Berenberg Bank has a Hold rating with a $30 price target.
• Atlantic Securities has a Neutral rating.
• Jefferies has a Hold rating with a $32 target price.

Shares of Bank of America traded down less than 1% on Tuesday to $29.09, in a 52-week range of $22.66 to $31.91. The consensus price target is $33.13.