Bank of America: Financial Winner

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bank of America (BAC) was the winner among the largest U.S. financial names on Tuesday, with shares rising over 1% to close at $9.91.

The broad indexes ended with slight declines, after President Obama rejected the counterproposal to his initial compromise plan that was presented by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) last week. The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives is looking for larger spending cuts than the president has agreed to so far, while President Obama is insisting on tax rate increases for couples earning over $250,000 per year.

The Republican leadership in Congress would prefer to see federal revenue increase through caps on tax deductions and the closing of tax loopholes. The president's proposal also included a $50 billion economic stimulus package.

The KBW Bank Index (I:BKX) was down 1% to close at 47.84, with all 24 index components down for the session, except for Bank of America and Citigroup (C), which was up seven cents to close at $34.29.

Bank of America's shares have now returned 79% year-to-date, following a 58% decline during 2011. To put those two figures into perspective, the shares are down 25% since the end of 2010.

The shares trade for 0.7 times their reported Sept. 30 tangible book value of $13.48, and for 10.2 times the consensus 2013 earnings estimate of 97 cents a share, among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The consensus 2014 EPS estimate is $1.28.

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that Bank of America had decided not to go ahead with a plan to begin charging monthly fees to at least 10 million checking account customers at the end of the year. With some of the company's largest competitors also planning new checking account fees, it would appear that Bank of America could finally be ahead of the trend and avoid a new set of nasty headlines.

While bank of America's shares are discounted to tangible book value in a way similar to Citigroup, the shares look much more expensive on a forward P/E basis when compared to Citi, which was trades for 7.4 times the consensus estimate of $4.64.

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