Our stocks had a good day on Friday. Overall our average Buy or higher rated stocks is up 7.4% this year to date. This beats the TSX by over 10% but trails the U.S. markets by a few percentage points.
Bank of America is updated and rated Speculative (higher) Buy at $11.66. For this update I read the front section of the annual report where the business segments are described and the President’s letter if given. I did not attempt to read the voluminous material on risks nor review all of the very numerous tables of figures. The analysis is necessarily at a high level. As always, I entered the key financial numbers for our analysis. Unfortunately, in this case the net income is relatively unreliable due to numerous adjustments and the lack of any reported adjusted earnings figure. What I read did not impress me. I listened to the Q1 conference call. The CFO read through a pile of material in a completely monotone and robotic fashion and using a copious amounts of acronyms. The CEO then came on with a discussion that sounded a lot less scripted. This bank is nowhere near as strong and well run as Wells Fargo. But it is trading cheaply. There is probably an opportunity for a good return on these shares as the bank continues to recover from the financial crisis.