Bank of America: Jobs Growth Winner
Updated with market close information.
NEW YORK (
) --
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
was the winner among the largest U.S. banking names on Thursday afternoon, with shares rising 4% to close at $8.09.
Financial names led a broad market rally following the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims for the week ended Feb. 11 declined to 348,000, which was
their lowest level in four years
Economists polled by Bloomberg had expected 365,000 unemployment claims for last week
|
The Down Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 stock indexes saw 1% gains and the Nasdaq index was up 1.5%. The
The KBW Bank Index
(I:BKX)
rose over up 2% to close at 45.15, with all 24 index components showing gains for the session .
Bank of America's shares have now risen 46% year-to-date, following last year's 58% decline.
With such a strong run-up so far this year, it's not surprising to see
three analysts cut their ratings
on the shares over the past ten days.
Out of 31 analysts covering Bank of America, nine still rate the shares a buy, while 21 analysts have neutral ratings, and just one analyst rates the shares "Underperform."
Bank of America is still heavily discounted, with the shares trading for just 0.6 times tangible book value at Wednesday's close, according to HighlineFI, but the shares traded for 11 time the consensus 2012 EPS estimate of 71 cents.
Interested in more on Bank of America? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.
Shares of
Zions Bancorporation
rose 3.5% to close at $19.16. The shares have now risen 18% year-to-date, through Wednesday's close at $18.51, following a 33% decline in 2011.
The shares trade just below tangible book value, according to HighlineFI, and for 13 times the consensus 2012 earnings estimate of $1.45, among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
The Salt Lake City lender still owes $1.4 billion in federal bailout funds received through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP.
Zions today is holding its sixth biennial investor day, and Barclays analyst Jason Goldberg on Feb. 3 said he expected the company's magement "to focus on potential and existing loan growth opportunities as it looks to deploy excess liquidity now that credit quality has shown consistent improvement, loan portfolio run-off is decelerating and sustainable profitability has been achieved," with "an emphasis on effective capital management and planning should coincide with the growth discussion, as it continues to navigate" the
Federal Reserve's
current round of stress tests and eventual TARP repayment.
Goldberg has a neutral rating on Zions, with a $25 price target.
Jefferies analyst Ken Usdin also has a neutral rating on Zions, and on Thursday discussed the company's
.
Interested in more on Zions Bancorporation? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.
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--
Written by Philip van Doorn in Jupiter, Fla.
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Philip W. van Doorn is a member of TheStreet's banking and finance team, commenting on industry and regulatory trends. He previously served as the senior analyst for TheStreet.com Ratings, responsible for assigning financial strength ratings to banks and savings and loan institutions. Mr. van Doorn previously served as a loan operations officer at Riverside National Bank in Fort Pierce, Fla., and as a credit analyst at the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York, where he monitored banks in New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico. Mr. van Doorn has additional experience in the mutual fund and computer software industries. He holds a bachelor of science in business administration from Long Island University.
