BAC
Wall Street’s mic is on
Bank of America is getting the classic pre-earnings treatment: analysts are polishing their models, trimming a few price targets, and generally acting like they’re trying to predict the weather with a coffee cup and a spreadsheet.
Evercore ISI’s Glenn Schorr kept an Outperform rating but cut his target from $67 to $62 on Oct. 1. Truist’s John McDonald did the same dance, holding a Buy while lowering his target from $65 to $62. UBS, JPMorgan, and Baird also weighed in earlier this year with bullish-to-neutral calls and fresh targets, which tells you BAC is still very much on the Street’s radar.
The thing investors actually care about
The bigger catalyst is the bank’s third-quarter earnings report, due before the opening bell on Oct. 14. Analysts are looking for earnings of $1.16 a share on revenue of $30.93 billion, both higher than a year ago.
That’s the real test here: does Bank of America show enough loan, trading, or payments strength to justify the optimism, or do the cuts to price targets turn out to be the market’s version of a preemptive umbrella?
Not just loans and fees anymore
There’s also a tiny side quest in the story: BofA said Monday it launched the AskGPS Intelligence Hub, expanding its internal generative AI platform for Global Payments Solutions employees. Translation: the bank keeps trying to make its massive payments machine a little less analog and a little more Silicon Valley-adjacent.
Big picture: this isn’t a huge “buy or sell now” shocker, but it is a reminder that BAC is entering earnings season with elevated expectations and a fresh batch of analyst commentary—always a combo that can move the stock if the numbers disappoint.