Bank of America to Reward Employees with Higher Bonuses – Report

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE: BAC) is planning on increasing bonuses for its employees, Bloomberg reported. 

According to the report, investment bankers are expected to be rewarded with an over 40% increase in the bonus pool, while bonuses for sales and trading operations could increase by an average of more than 30%. 

Notably, employees at the bank’s fixed-trading division will also be rewarded with bonus payments despite dismal performances (revenue down 9% for nine months ended September 30) in 2021. Senior executives are of the opinion that some parts of the business are performing particularly well. 

The sweetening of bonuses corresponds with the increasing competition for talent on Wall Street. Notably, last year, the bank kept the bonus pool flat amid rising costs and concerns over the persistence of strong trading and dealmaking activities. Additionally, Bank of America parked some funds as provisions for consumer and corporate loans.  

Last month, among other investment banks, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) also announced plans to increase their bonus pools for investment bankers by up to 50% and 40%, respectively. 

Wall Street’s Take 

Recently, Piper Sandler analyst Jeff Harte maintained a Buy rating on BofA and raised the price target to $54 (9.8% upside potential) from $53. 

The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 11 Buys, 5 Holds, and 2 Sells. The average Bank of America price target of $50.22 implies 2.11% upside potential. Shares have gained 51.6% over the past year. 

Bank of America is expected to release its upcoming earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2021 on January 19. 

Website Traffic 

TipRanks’ Website Traffic Tool, which uses data from SEMrush Holdings (NYSE: SEMR), the world’s biggest website usage monitoring service, offers insight into Bank of America’s performance this quarter.  

According to the tool, the Bank of America website recorded a 13.42% decrease in global visits in November compared to the same period last year. Also, a quarter-to-date comparison showed a decline of 15.85% compared to Q4 2020, while year-to-date website traffic growth stands at 7.43%.

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