What's really left to say about Bank of America
Because of the big investment that the government has made in the company, its spiderweb of connections throughout the financial system, and its highly controversial acquisitions of Countrywide and Merrill Lynch, Bank of America has had little time out of the spotlight lately. But as investors, all of this really boils down to the simple question that Morgan asked: Is Bank of America a buy?
For some help on that question, we can turn to the collective opinion of the Motley Fool CAPS community. While the stock's three-star CAPS rating doesn't completely dismiss it from consideration, it does suggest that the community thinks there are much better opportunities for investors.
That doesn't, however, mean that there aren't CAPS members who have scored big points by betting on Bank of America. CAPS member JakilaTheHun, for example, has racked up more than 400 points on the stock by giving it a thumbs-up back in late February.
JakilaTheHun is one of CAPS' All-Stars -- players with a rating of 80 or greater -- and has managed an impressive stock-picking accuracy of 75% while racking up more than 9,000 points. Bank of America isn't this player's only great call. Here's a look at a few of the other prescient picks:
|
Company |
Date Picked |
Date Ended |
Call |
Points |
CAPS Rating
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Ford |
1/9/09 |
Still Open |
Outperform |
168 |
** |
|
Freeport-McMoRan |
10/17/08 |
6/10/09 |
Outperform |
86 |
**** |
|
Cemex |
2/26/09 |
Still Open |
Outperform |
78 |
***** |
Data from CAPS.
So what is this investor looking at these days? Here are a few of the most recent calls on CAPS:
|
Company |
Date Picked |
Call |
CAPS Rating
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
XTO Energy |
8/31/09 |
Outperform |
***** |
|
Penn West Energy |
8/28/09 |
Outperform |
***** |
|
Noble |
8/6/09 |
Outperform |
***** |
Data from CAPS.
While not all of these picks may pan out, they could be a good place to start further research. I decided to take a closer look at Noble.
A comeback for oil services?
As mighty as many major oil companies may be, they can't do it all. For certain services, even the biggest of the big (like ExxonMobil) turn to companies like Noble, which owns a fleet of 62 drill ships that it contracts out to do offshore drilling for any oil company that will pay it enough.
As my fellow Fool David Lee Smith pointed out last month, a lot of oil and gas projects were put on hold when energy prices walked off a cliff after last summer. Prices have come back significantly, though -- enough so that many of those halted projects may soon come back online. That means a bump in demand for drillers like Noble, which could drive higher dayrates for its rigs, which would lead to heftier profits for shareholders.
CAPS All-Star AlphaPuppy -- one of nearly 2,000 CAPS members who have rated the stock an outperformer -- gave Noble a thumbs-up late last month, saying:
We are attracted to Noble for its exceptional balance sheet strength and attendant financial flexibility which could allow management to capitalize on unstable conditions in the energy market by way of acquisitions, etc. However, the company sees ample opportunity for organic growth - but has made clear its intention to return cash to shareholders if such opportunities don't fully materialize. ...
This is a long-term (disciplined asset) growth and revaluation story. NE has underperformed its peer group leaving it trading at a very attractive relative valuation. ... We enthusiastically rate this stock BUY and expect to be raising our FV in the near future as earnings visibility reflects improved commodity pricing.
But here's the important question: What's your take? Will the rebound in oil not translate to better profits for Noble? Get in the action by clicking over to CAPS. It's absolutely free and already has more than 140,000 stock pickers chipping in to find the best stocks out there.
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