Is the Time Right for Investors to Bolt Bank of America?: Poll
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Is Bank of America(BAC) still a buy after its 45% rally in 2012? Or is it time to book profit, especially as the Dow looks poised for a pullback after touching 13,000 Tuesday?
Your answer probably depends at least in part on where you fall on the debate over Bank of America's valuations. Long-term bulls from Fairholme Fund's Bruce Berkowitz, to Second Curve's Tom Brown to Rochdale Securities analyst Dick Bove argue that the stock is still cheap and has plenty of room to run.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television, hedge fund manager Tom Brown said he expects the stock to go up to $20. ""We didn't buy it for a move from $5 to $8; we bought it for a move from $5 to $20," Second Curve Capital chief Tom Brown told Bloomberg Television in an interview last week . Brown got into the stock at the start of the year.
Dick Bove is even more bullish, arguing the stock has the potential to hit $30. "I think there's $3 in earnings power there and this stock can easily sell at 10 times earnings, once you recognize that the company is two companies: its Countrywide and its Bank of America and once you get Countrywide taken out of Bank of America, which is the lawsuits are paid, the bad loans are paid, the foreclosures are done, all of a sudden Bank of America is there and Bank of America can earn three bucks," Bove said in a recent interview .
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Berkowitz also recently expressed confidence that Bank of America will fix Countrywide and remains committed to his big bet on the stock, even though it destroyed his portfolio in 2011.
Of course, it could be a while before the stock price actually sees these fancy targets, so whether you should buy or not depends on your time horizon. In a poll conducted by TheStreet earlier this year, more than 75% of you, or 907 readers, said the stock will hit $10 sometime this year. That is still a decent 25% upside from these levels.
Still, at least three analysts have downgraded the stock in recent weeks to the equivalent of a neutral rating, following the steep run up in the stock.
While analysts seem to agree that Bank of America has largely addressed its capital adequacy issues with its series of asset sales, many express doubt that the bank has any significant earnings power as it continues to shrink its balance sheet.
No one is ready to scream sell yet, because the stock still trades at only about 60% of its tangible book value, despite its significant rally.