Longtime Warren Buffett favorite Bank of America reported an earnings surge at the end of last year that marked a turnaround for the banking giant. Bank of America stock on Thursday got an upgrade for its IBD Relative Strength (RS) Rating, from 69 to 73. The upgrade puts BAC stock just a few points below a benchmark for top-performing stocks.
The best growth stocks typically have an 80 or better RS Rating as they launch their biggest climbs. See if Bank of America can continue to show renewed price strength and hit that benchmark.
Bank Of America Near Fresh Buy Point
Bank of America stock is working on a consolidation with a 47.98 entry. See if the stock can clear the breakout price in heavy trade. On April 9, BofA Stock dropped to a 33.07 low as the market correction was ending. Thursday afternoon BAC shares traded above 44, down fractionally for the day but up 34% in the last five weeks.
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Bank of America showed 18% earnings growth last quarter to 90 cents per share. Revenue grew 6% to $27.4 billion. That came on the heels of a 134% surge in EPS the prior quarter on 15% higher revenue. The quarter before that BofA saw its EPS dip 10% on a weak 1% revenue gain. Analyst consensus is for mid-single digit earnings growth this quarter, returning to double-digit growth later this year.
Other Ratings Demonstrate Strength
Charlotte, N.C.-based BofA has an outstanding 90 Earnings Per Share Rating, putting it in the top 10% of all companies for recent quarters and long-term profit growth. It also carries a strong 88 Composite Rating, and a B Accumulation/Distribution Rating. The B rating shows that institutions are moderately heavy buyers of Bank of America stock.
Bank of America earns the No. 12 rank among its peers in the 22-stock Banks-Money Centers industry group. NatWest Group, Barclays and Royal Bank of Canada are among the top five highly rated stocks in the group.
IBD's unique Relative Strength Rating measures market leadership with a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score. The grade shows how a stock's price performance over the last 52 weeks compares to all the other stocks in our database.
This article was created automatically with Stats Perform's Wordsmith software using data and article templates supplied by Investor's Business Daily. An IBD journalist may have edited the article.
Please follow James DeTar on Twitter @JimDeTar
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