Something unexpected happened to bank stock Bank of America (BAC) recently, which left a lot of people puzzled. Normally, when Berkshire Hathaway ($BRK.B) issues its 10K report, Bank of America is commonly mentioned by name. This time, however, it was not, and it drew attention. It did not, however, draw concern from investors, as Bank of America shares were up fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading.
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One of the first to catch the issue, noted a CNBC report, was Jason Goldberg with Barclays. The language in the report noted “We own a small percentage of a dozen or so very large and highly profitable businesses with household names such as Apple (AAPL)…” and a few others. But Bank of America, despite being one of the very large and highly profitable businesses in question, was not named.
The more interesting part of the snub is that it could even be interpreted as deliberate. As part of the “…and the rest” report, the list went alphabetically. However, it featured two names that started with A—Apple was one of them—and then proceeded on to a stock that started with C. It bypassed B, and thus, Bank of America, altogether. It is unclear at this moment just why Buffett bypassed Bank of America.
More Online Users
But life was about more than Warren Buffett for Bank of America, and it proved as much with a new report out. More and more users are turning to online options at the bank, as digital interactions cleared the 26 billion mark. That represented a gain of 12% against this time last year.
Bank of America pointed to several features, including the Erica system, the CashPro service advisor, and adoption from private bank clients. But what went unnoticed was that Bank of America closed 126 branches in 2024, reports note. That was actually enough to make it the second-highest number of bank branch closures for 2024, second only to Wells Fargo (WFG).
Is BAC a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on BAC stock based on 18 Buys and two Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 37.1% rally in its share price over the past year, the average BAC price target of $53.03 per share implies 17.92% upside potential.
