Should You Invest in Bank of America (BAC)?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management company, released its “ClearBridge Value Equity Strategy” first quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The strategy outperformed the Russell 1000 Value Index in the first quarter. On an absolute basis, the strategy has gained 9 out of eleven sectors it invested in during the quarter. Financial and utilities sectors were the leading contributors while the real estate and healthcare sectors detracted. Overall stock selection and sector allocation contributed to returns relatively. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.

ClearBridge Value Equity Strategy highlighted stocks like Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC), in the first quarter 2024 investor letter. Founded in 1784, Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) offers banking and financial products and services. The one-month return of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) was 3.15%, and its shares gained 40.17% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 2, 2024, Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) stock closed at $40.93 per share with a market capitalization of $320.088 billion.

ClearBridge Value Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

"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."

A business owner discussing commercial business loans with a bank representative.

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 82 hedge fund portfolios held Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) at the end of the first quarter which was 96 in the previous quarter. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) reported an EPS of $0.76 and a net income of $6.7 billion after taxes for the first quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

We discussed Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) in another article and shared the list of largest companies in the US. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.