10 Best Bank Stocks to Buy in 2025

2. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 98

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is a bank and financial holding company that serves individuals, companies, and institutions through its eight lines of business. The bank has an extensive network of branches and also enjoys a robust digital presence, which has allowed it to attract customers, expand its deposit base, and effectively manage costs to maintain profitability.

The company enjoys a healthy balance when it comes to the contribution of its segments towards the overall performance. A little over half of its earnings come from the Consumer Banking and Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM) businesses, which are focused on serving the people. The other half comes from Global Banking and Markets businesses, which are dedicated toward companies and institutional investors.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)’s recent financial success has been attributed to its Consumer Banking segment, which continues to deliver solid organic growth. For the last 23 successive quarters, the bank has been adding net new consumer checking accounts, which is helping in expanding BAC’s market share. During the first nine months of 2024, the bank added more than 880,000 net new checking accounts.

Investment balances for consumer clients in Q3 climbed 28% year-over-year, to a record $497 billion, driven by strong inflows of $29 billion over the past 12 months. The company’s overall outlook for the backend of 2024 and the start of 2025 appeared encouraging to investors and this was reflected in Diamond Hill Large Cap Strategy’s remarks in its Q2 2024 investor letter:

Other top contributors in Q2 included Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) and Extra Space Storage. Shares of financial services company Bank of America rose in the quarter as it looks increasingly likely net interest income will inflect and begin growing again in 2024’s back half and into 2025.

According to Insider Monkey’s database for Q3 2024, 98 hedge funds held a stake in the company, up from 92 at the end of Q2. Wall Street analysts are bullish on the stock heading in 2025, with a consensus Buy rating and an average share price upside potential of 3%. As a result, the stock ranks second in our list of the best bank stocks to buy in 2025.