Dow Today: Bank Of America Corporation (BAC) Leads The Day Higher, Caterpillar (CAT) Lags

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) is trading up five points at 13,107 as of Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012, 9:35 a.m. ET. During this time, 22.8 million shares of the 30 Dow components have changed hands vs. an average daily trading volume of 612.1 million. The NYSE advances/declines ratio sits at 1,536 issues advancing vs. 1,044 declining with 213 unchanged.

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The Dow component leading the way higher looks to be Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), which is sporting a seven-cent gain (+0.9%) bringing the stock to $8.03. This single gain is lifting the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 0.53 points or roughly accounting for 10.6% of the Dow's overall gain. Volume for Bank of America Corporation currently sits at 5.7 million shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 142.7 million shares.

Bank of America Corporation has a market cap of $86.97 billion and is part of the financial sector and banking industry. Shares are up 43.2% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 0.5%.

Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides various banking and financial products and services to individual consumers, small-and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, corporations, and governments in the United States and internationally. The company has a P/E ratio of 6.4, below the average banking industry P/E ratio of 8.6 and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Bank of America Corporation as a hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, impressive record of earnings per share growth and compelling growth in net income. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including generally higher debt management risk and weak operating cash flow.

• You can view the full Bank of America Ratings Report.

Holding back the Dow today is Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT), which is lagging the broader Dow index with a 79-cent decline (-0.9%) bringing the stock to $85.22. Volume for Caterpillar currently sits at 616,864 shares traded vs. an average daily trading volume of 7.3 million shares.

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Caterpillar has a market cap of $56.59 billion and is part of the conglomerates sector and conglomerates industry. Shares are down 5.1% year to date as of Tuesday's close. The stock's dividend yield sits at 2.4%.

Caterpillar Inc. manufactures and sells construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives worldwide. The company has a P/E ratio of 9.7, equal to the average conglomerates industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7.

TheStreet Ratings rates Caterpillar as a buy. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its robust revenue growth, notable return on equity, impressive record of earnings per share growth, compelling growth in net income and increase in stock price during the past year. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had generally high debt management risk by most measures that we evaluated.

• You can view the full Caterpillar Ratings Report.

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