10 Best Big-Name Stocks to Buy Right Now According to Short Sellers

4) Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 92

Short % of Shares Outstanding (August 15, 2024): 0.81%

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) operates as a financial holding company. It offers saving accounts, deposits, mortgage and construction loans, cash and wealth management, certificates of deposit, investment funds, online banking services, and other related services.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is expected to see strong earnings and revenue growth over the coming years mainly due to the switching costs it has created and the advantages that come from lower customer acquisition costs. On the consumer side, the banking company can cross-sell multiple products, offering advantageous pricing to key customer segments. It can also spread its overall costs of customer acquisition across revenue streams.

Also, the company enjoys a broad reach. This means that Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)’s scalability enables it to acquire deposits cheaply which are sticky. In 2Q 2024, the company was able to add ~278,000 net new consumer checking accounts in the Consumer Banking business. This was the 22^nd consecutive quarter of growth. Its CET1 ratio came in at 11.9% (Standardized), which was 122 bps above the new regulatory minimum.

In 2Q 2024, its revenues, net of interest expense, came in at $25.4 billion, reflecting an increase of $180 million, or 1%. This was mainly because of higher asset management and investment banking fees. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) continues to focus on organic growth via strategic investments in its core businesses.

Analysts at Barclays increased their price target on the shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) from $43.00 to $49.00, giving it an “Overweight” rating on 17^th July. As of Q2 2024, 92 hedge fund holders had stakes in the company.

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its first quarter 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:

“We added several new positions during the quarter. Our largest new addition was Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), one of the world’s leading financial institutions, serving some 66 million consumer and small business clients across the U.S. as well as large corporations, financial institutions and governments globally. We believe that the interest rate pressure that Bank of America faced in early 2023 has subsided, and risks surrounding deposit outflows have abated, which should allow the company to improve its book value and capital growth as well as benefit from a rebound of capital markets activity.”