Topic: Growth Stocks

The Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, November 16, 2007

Article Excerpt

BANK OF AMERICA CORP. $44.37, New York symbol BAC, has moved down lately along with most financial services stocks, mainly due to concerns over liquidity problems with securities backed by mortgages and other assets. That makes it difficult to assess the market value of these securities. Bank of America will take a $3 billion pre-tax charge in the fourth quarter of 2007 due to writedowns of asset-backed securities. That’s equal to 1.5% of its market cap of $204 billion. Bank of America still has $16 billion worth of these securities, including $12.1 billion tied to subprime mortgages, so it may face more writedowns if conditions worsen. Bank of America closed its subprime mortgage business in 2001, so its overall credit quality is still strong. Its retail banking, credit card and wealth management operations are also performing well. Bank of America is a buy. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP. $104.79, New York symbol IBM, has agreed to pay $4.9 billion for Cognos Inc., a Canadian…