Bank Of America Stock Rises Pre-Market On Upbeat Q4: Retail Sentiment Hits Year-High

Shares of Bank of America Corp (BAC) were trading in the green in Thursday’s pre-market session after the lender’s fourth-quarter earnings topped Wall Street estimates.

The lender reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.82 compared to a Wall Street estimate of $0.77. Revenue rose 15% year-over-year (YoY) to $25.5 billion versus an analyst estimate of $25.19 billion.

The increase was primarily led by higher asset management and investment banking fees, and sales and trading revenue.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and expended, rose 3% YoY to $14.4 billion, driven primarily by Global Markets activity, fixed-rate asset repricing and loan growth, partially offset by the impact of lower interest rates.

Although the provision for credit losses of $1.5 billion modestly improved from the previous quarter, it increased from $1.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023.

CEO Brian Moynihan said every source of revenue increased, and the bank saw better than industry growth in deposits and loans. “We also ended with strong capital and liquidity, enabling us to return $21 billion of capital to shareholders in 2024. We believe this broad momentum sets up 2025 very well for Bank of America,” he said in a statement.

Investment banking fees increased 44% to $1.7 billion, $180 million more than analysts’ expectations, according to a CNBC report.

Bank of America expects first-quarter NII of $14.5 billion to $14.6 billion and anticipates growing sequentially to $14.5 billion-$14.6 billion in the fourth quarter.

Following the earnings report, retail sentiment on Stocktwits jumped into the ‘extremely bullish’ territory (85/100) from ‘bullish’ a day ago, hitting a year-high level. The move was accompanied by ‘extremely high’ retail chatter.

Retail chatter on Thursday morning reflected optimism surrounding the stock’s near-term prospects.

Notably, Bank of America shares have risen over 46% over the past year.

Big banks, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo, reported upbeat fourth-quarter results.

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