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Bank of America (BAC) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Bank of America (BAC - Free Report) closed at $41.50, marking a +0.73% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 2.14% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.82%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.01%.

Heading into today, shares of the nation's second-largest bank had lost 13.12% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's loss of 5.3% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.01% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Bank of America as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 18, 2022. On that day, Bank of America is projected to report earnings of $0.78 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 9.3%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $23.5 billion, up 2.99% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.28 per share and revenue of $94.18 billion. These totals would mark changes of -8.12% and +5.69%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Bank of America. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.03% higher. Bank of America currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, Bank of America currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.55. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.37.

Meanwhile, BAC's PEG ratio is currently 1.79. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. BAC's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.61 as of yesterday's close.

The Banks - Major Regional industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 110, putting it in the top 44% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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