Bank of America Upgrade June-11-09
BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America Corp. and its chief executive continue to face heat over the controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch, but some Wall Street analysts say the banking giant's ability to raise capital removes some uncertainty and makes the stock a buy.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Bank of America (BAC) on Thursday to outperform from market perform, and lifted its target price on the stock to $16.50 from $12. B. of A. shares closed Wednesday at $11.98 and were off nearly 15% so far this year, according to FactSet Research. The stock rose more than 7% at last check on Thursday to $12.09, in the wake of upbeat analyst commentary.
Earlier this month, the bank said it had raised nearly $33 billion in capital related to the $33.9 billion cushion mandated by the government's "stress tests" of bank balance sheets.
"The completion of these capital-raising actions takes away a level of uncertainty that kept us from being positive on the shares," KBW analysts Jefferson Harralson and Brady Gailey wrote in a note.
The upgrade was driven by "a cheap earnings valuation and the clarity that Bank of America has provided on its final share count and capital base," they added.
Separately, Morgan Stanley on Thursday raised its earnings estimates for B. of A. on higher expected revenue at the retail-brokerage and investment-banking businesses.
Also, Raymond James analysts told clients Thursday that they "strongly recommend" purchasing the stock and expect it to at least double over the next 12 months. B. of A.'s core earnings power has recently improved "largely due to lower than expected share-count increases, partially offset by higher loan-loss provision assumptions," they said.
https://www.etrade.wallst.com/v1/stocks/news/search_results.asp?docKey=5018-0A28D36434204282AD6E52D94D05517C-1F5F22RSK627BP6MMDC52ANF7N&DMSourceID=CBSMW&Source=Marketwatch&docDate=2009-06-11%2016:30:00&headline=B.%20of%20A.%20gets%20upgrade%20on%20capital%20raises%2C%20valuation&refSymbols=|US;BAC|US;C
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Bank of America (BAC) on Thursday to outperform from market perform, and lifted its target price on the stock to $16.50 from $12. B. of A. shares closed Wednesday at $11.98 and were off nearly 15% so far this year, according to FactSet Research. The stock rose more than 7% at last check on Thursday to $12.09, in the wake of upbeat analyst commentary.
Earlier this month, the bank said it had raised nearly $33 billion in capital related to the $33.9 billion cushion mandated by the government's "stress tests" of bank balance sheets.
"The completion of these capital-raising actions takes away a level of uncertainty that kept us from being positive on the shares," KBW analysts Jefferson Harralson and Brady Gailey wrote in a note.
The upgrade was driven by "a cheap earnings valuation and the clarity that Bank of America has provided on its final share count and capital base," they added.
Separately, Morgan Stanley on Thursday raised its earnings estimates for B. of A. on higher expected revenue at the retail-brokerage and investment-banking businesses.
Also, Raymond James analysts told clients Thursday that they "strongly recommend" purchasing the stock and expect it to at least double over the next 12 months. B. of A.'s core earnings power has recently improved "largely due to lower than expected share-count increases, partially offset by higher loan-loss provision assumptions," they said.
https://www.etrade.wallst.com/v1/stocks/news/search_results.asp?docKey=5018-0A28D36434204282AD6E52D94D05517C-1F5F22RSK627BP6MMDC52ANF7N&DMSourceID=CBSMW&Source=Marketwatch&docDate=2009-06-11%2016:30:00&headline=B.%20of%20A.%20gets%20upgrade%20on%20capital%20raises%2C%20valuation&refSymbols=|US;BAC|US;C
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