Bank of America Will Get Regulator Love: Analysts
NEW YORK (
) --
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
shares shook off a
in
The Wall Street Journal
on Tuesday that regulators are unsatisfied with the bank's progress in building up its capital cushion, as analysts believe the company has taken big steps to fortify its balance sheet.
"The company has done an enormous job in improving the numbers," says Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove. He points to moves in the last 10 days the bank has taken, including selling $6.6 billion worth of
China Construction Bank
shares and retiring $2.7 billion in preferred and trust preferred stock by issuing $2.1 billion in common shares.
|
Those moves increased the bank's Tier 1 capital ratio by .38%, according to
a report Monday from Wells Fargo analyst Matt Burnell
. Burnell believes the company is on track to reach its capital goals by the end of 2012, which include a Basel 3 tier 1 common capital ratio of 6.75-7%.
Rochdale's Bove says he spoke to bank officials Tuesday and they told him they were not aware of any recent concerns raised by regulators at the
Federal Reserve
about Bank of America's capital position. Bove says the Fed would be the key regulator in this context.
"My feeling and the bank's feeling is that this (expression of dissatisfaction by regulators) happened many months ago. The latest that the bank can think it happened was early in the summer. To the bank's knowledge, there has not been any comment by the Federal Reserve of that nature for some time," Bove says.
An email to a bank spokesman was not returned. A
Federal Reserve
spokesman declined to comment.
Bank of America shares were down slightly mid-morning, but slightly better than those of
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
,
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
,
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
and
Morgan Stanley
(MS) - Get Report
. In keeping with the recent mood of the markets amid concerns over Europe,
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
, which has the least international exposure of the U.S. banking giants, was the best performer.
--
Written by Dan Freed in New York
.
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Disclosure: TheStreet's editorial policy prohibits staff editors, reporters and analysts from holding positions in any individual stocks.
