Major market benchmarks were mixed on Monday, waffling between positive and negative territory throughout the session as investors weighed a positive start to corporate earnings season against controversial pro-Russia statements made by Trump during the summit in Helsinki.
Still, several individual stocks easily outperformed the rest, including AMD (AMD -0.35%), Deutsche Bank (DB -0.12%), and Bank of America (BAC -0.13%). Here's why they did so well.
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AMD gets a vote of confidence
Shares of AMD climbed as much as 4.5% early, then settled to close up 1.9% after the semiconductor specialist received an upgrade ahead of its second-quarter report later this month. Stifel analyst Kevin Cassidy reiterated his buy rating on AMD this morning, and increased his price target on the stock from $17 to $21.
To justify his relative bullishness, Cassidy pointed to "many positive PC industry data points" for the second quarter, which indicate that shipments of AMD's higher-margin Zen-based CPU products could arrive slightly above management's guidance.
"We expect AMD to benefit from the stronger than expected results," he added, "especially given the trends for enterprise, gaming, and high-end notebooks, all markets in which AMD has improved its competitive position through its Ryzen processors."
Deutsche Bank's surprising update
Deutsche Bank stock popped 8% following the German investment bank and financial services company's announcement of encouraging preliminary results.
For the second quarter of 2018, Deutsche Bank anticipates revenue of roughly 6.6 billion euros, which should translate to net income of approximately 400 million euros. In comparison, consensus estimates on Wall Street called for lower earnings of 159 million euros on revenue of just 6.4 billion euros.
"Management believes that these results demonstrate the resilience of the franchise," Deutsche Bank added in a prepared statement.
For perspective, German media outlets recently asserted that Chancellor Angela Merkel had voiced concerns over Deutsche Bank's business strategy -- something the German government subsequently denied -- while a number of foreign banks were reportedly considering taking stakes in the company with shares near all-time lows. On the latter, if its business has indeed taken a turn for the better, that opportunity may have passed.
Bank of America's solid quarter
Finally, shares of Bank of America climbed 4.3% in the wake of the company's impressive second-quarter results relative to expectations. The American banking institution saw adjusted revenue grow 3% year over year to $22.6 billion, helped by a 7% increase in trading revenue. On the bottom line, that translated to 43% growth in earnings per share to $0.63, thanks largely to the benefits of U.S. tax reform.
Analysts, on average, would have settled for earnings of $0.57 per share on revenue of $22.3 billion.
"Solid operating leverage and client activity drove earnings higher this quarter," added CEO Brian Moynihan.
With Bank of America still trading well off the year's highs, it's no surprise to see the stock rebounding given its quarterly beat today.
