BAC, Bank of America Corp.
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, read from the numbers in its filings. The quantitative detail is in the sections below; the verdict is left to you.
- What it is
- A balance-sheet business, read on book value, net interest margin and credit losses rather than an earnings multiple.
- What moves the needle
- Net interest margin, loan losses, and book value. A lender is read on the quality of its balance sheet, not on an earnings multiple.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on equity has sat below the cost of equity (median 9%, above 12% in only 0 of 10 years). It runs at a 62% efficiency ratio, about average. The cycle and the loan book decide this one; weigh the recession years in the record, not the average, and read the 10-K.
Every line here is arithmetic from the company's own filings, not a model's opinion, and each figure appears in full in the sections below.
Where the money comes from
read the 10-K →14% of revenue comes from outside the United States.
- United States86%$97.7B
- EMEA7%$7.6B
- Asia5%$6.0B
- Latin America2%$1.8B
From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.
The record, 2016–2025
realized figures from each filing, no estimates| 2016’16 | 2017’17 | 2018’18 | 2019’19 | 2020’20 | 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMMar 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RevenueRevenue | $83.7B | $87.1B | $91.0B | $91.2B | $85.5B | $89.1B | $95.0B | $102.8B | $105.9B | $113.1B | $115.1B |
| Net interest incomeNet int. | $41.1B | $45.2B | $48.2B | $48.9B | $43.4B | $42.9B | $52.5B | $56.9B | $56.1B | $60.1B | $61.4B |
| Net incomeNet inc. | $17.8B | $18.2B | $28.1B | $27.4B | $17.9B | $32.0B | $27.5B | $26.3B | $27.0B | $30.5B | $31.7B |
| EPS (diluted)EPS | $1.61 | $1.69 | $2.75 | $2.90 | $2.03 | $3.74 | $3.37 | $3.26 | $3.40 | $3.97 | $4.28 |
| Return on equityROE | 7% | 7% | 11% | 10% | 7% | 12% | 10% | 9% | 9% | 10% | 11% |
| Return on tangible equityROTCE | 9% | 9% | 14% | 14% | 9% | 16% | 14% | 12% | 12% | 13% | 14% |
| Efficiency ratioEffic. | 66% | 63% | 58% | 60% | 65% | 67% | 65% | 64% | 63% | 62% | 61% |
| DepositsDeposits | $1260.9B | $1309.5B | $1381.5B | $1434.8B | $1795.5B | $2064.4B | $1930.3B | $1923.8B | $1965.5B | $2018.7B | $2037.7B |
| Book value / shareBVPS | $24.10 | $24.79 | $25.92 | $28.04 | $31.03 | $31.56 | $33.45 | $35.91 | $37.04 | $39.48 | $40.53 |
| Tangible book / shareTBVPS | $17.59 | $18.17 | $19.01 | $20.56 | $22.94 | $23.23 | $24.74 | $27.13 | $28.09 | $30.26 | $30.99 |
Owner’s Scorecard
Is it a good business?
- Return on equity 10%AdequateNet income $30.5B ÷ equity $303.2B
The bank's north star, what it earns on shareholders' capital. Cost of equity is roughly 10%, so a return durably above that builds value and below it destroys it. One year is noisy; the durability across a full credit cycle is what counts.
- Return on tangible equity 13%StrongNet income ÷ (equity − goodwill $69.0B − intangibles $1.8B)
The cleaner return, stripping out the goodwill paid for past acquisitions. This is the number a buyer of the whole bank actually earns on the hard capital.
- Efficiency ratio 62%EfficientNoninterest expense $69.7B ÷ (net interest income + fees)
The share of revenue eaten by running costs; lower is better, and below about 60% marks a genuinely efficient operation. A low ratio held for years is the operational side of a moat.
Is it sound?
- Capital (equity / assets) 8.9%AdequateEquity $303.2B ÷ assets $3411.7B
A plain-English leverage read: how much of the balance sheet is the owners' own money. This is a rough proxy; the regulatory figure is the CET1 ratio, which is risk-weighted and reported in the filing. The point is the same, how much loss the bank can absorb before depositors are at risk.
- Deposit funding 59%Mostly deposit-fundedDeposits $2018.7B ÷ assets $3411.7B
Low-cost, sticky deposits are a bank's real moat, the cheap raw material it lends out at a spread. A bank funded mostly by deposits earns more durably than one that rents its money in the wholesale market.
- Credit cost (provision / NII) 6%LowProvision for credit losses $3.6B ÷ net interest income $60.1B
What the bank set aside this year against loans going bad, as a share of its lending income. This swings hard with the cycle, low in good years and spiking in recessions, so read it across the record, not in one year. Disciplined underwriting shows up as low, stable provisions through a downturn.
Solvent is not the same as cheap; growing is not the same as good. These are vital signs, not a verdict, the judgment is yours, and the filing is one click away.
Management & pay
read the proxy →Two questions Buffett actually asks about pay: is stock compensation, a real expense, whatever the income statement pretends, quietly large, and is the top wildly out of line with the floor. He's no populist about it; he just wants pay that's rational and earned, and comp committees that aren't lapdogs.
- CEO pay ratio272:1
What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio isn't proof of anything, some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill, but a runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job or just keeping the chair company.
- Stock-based compensation$4.0B
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 4% of revenue. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. And note the trap, the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.
What the price implies
price / tangible bookA bank is worth a multiple of its tangible book value, and the multiple it deserves is set by the return it earns on that book. Type today’s price; we show what you would be paying against what Bank of America Corp.’s record justifies. Nothing is stored; the number stays in your browser.
Enter a price above to run it.
The justified multiple is (return on tangible equity − growth) ÷ (cost of equity − growth). A bank earning exactly its cost of equity is worth about one times tangible book; every point of durable excess return above that is worth paying up for. Raise the cost of equity and the justified multiple falls: that is interest-rate gravity on a bank.
Tangible book $229.8B on 7418M shares, a 12% normalized return on it. This is a lens, not a target. It assumes the bank keeps earning that return; a credit cycle, a rate shock or a bad acquisition changes it, which is what the record and the 10-K are for.
What the filing emphasizes, FY2025
read the 10-K →Each year a 10-K must name what could go wrong, in the company's own words. Here are the ones Graham and Buffett would stop on, each set against the figure from the same filings that bears on it, anchored to a period you can find in the record above. We point; the judgment is yours.
- Customer concentrationMD&A
Who the revenue leans on. When one buyer is a large slice of sales, that buyer holds the pricing power, and its troubles become the company's.
“During 2025, 13 percent of these customers with an outstanding balance did not pay any principal on their HELOCs.”
From the recordRevenue exposed (TTM)$115.1B - Pricing power & competitionBusiness
Whether the company sets its price or takes it. Durable pricing power is the surest mark of a moat; price competition is the surest mark there isn't one.
“Increased competition may reduce our market share, net interest margin and fee-based revenue and negatively affect our results of operations, including through pricing pressure, increased investment to improve the quality and delivery of our technology and/or affecting our clients' willingness to do…”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself. - Concentrated dependenceMD&A
What the whole business leans on, a product, a platform, a partner. Concentration cuts both ways, and the filing is where management has to admit it.
“The accuracy of a VaR model depends on the availability and quality of historical data for each of the risk factors in the portfolio.”
From the recordRevenue (TTM)$115.1B - Debt terms & refinancingMD&A
The fine print behind the debt. Covenants and near-term maturities decide who is really in control when a year goes badly.
“Short-term Borrowings Short-term borrowings provide an additional funding source and primarily consist of Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) short-term borrowings, commercial paper, notes payable and various other borrowings that generally have maturities of one year or less.”
From the recordBalance sheet (TTM)$156.3B net debt - Litigation & contingenciesRisk Factors
Claims an owner inherits. Most disclosure is boilerplate; this fires only on an actual matter, a named suit, a settlement, a contingency, a number.
“Unemployment Insurance Prepaid Cards Beginning in January 2021, BANA was named as a defendant in putative class action and mass action lawsuits related to its administration of prepaid debit cards to distribute unemployment and other state benefits, including for the State of California, which was t…”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself. - Cyclicality & demandBusiness
How the business behaves when the economy turns. A cyclical earns its keep across the whole cycle, not at the peak.
“If our SCB, G-SIB surcharge or countercyclical capital buffer requirements increase, our dividends and common stock repurchases could decrease.”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself. - Regulation & policyMD&A
Rules that can rewrite the economics, tariffs, antitrust, data, export controls.
“Substantially all of our senior and subordinated debt obligations contain no provisions that could trigger a requirement for an early repayment, require additional collateral support, result in changes to terms, accelerate maturity or create additional financial obligations upon an adverse change in…”
A judgment, not a number, weigh it against the filing yourself.
Peers, Banks
The same industry, side by side on the bank lens, compare, don't rank by a single number. ● marks best in the group.