Bank of America (BAC) Competitors

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are related large-cap companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment and risk.

Do analysts recommend BAC or AAPL?

Bank of America currently has a consensus price target of $48.28, suggesting a potential downside of 1.34%. Apple has a consensus price target of $234.95, suggesting a potential upside of 10.12%. Given Apple's higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Apple is more favorable than Bank of America.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Bank of America	1 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	18 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.81
Apple	2 Sell rating(s)	12 Hold rating(s)	17 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.58

Which has better earnings and valuation, BAC or AAPL?

Apple has higher revenue and earnings than Bank of America. Bank of America is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Apple, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Bank of America	$192.43B	1.92	$27.13B	$3.36	14.57
Apple	$391.04B	8.15	$93.74B	$6.42	33.23

Is BAC or AAPL a better dividend stock?

Bank of America pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Apple pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Bank of America pays out 31.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Apple pays out 16.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Bank of America has increased its dividend for 11 consecutive years and Apple has increased its dividend for 14 consecutive years.

Do institutionals & insiders hold more shares of BAC or AAPL?

70.7% of Bank of America shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 67.7% of Apple shares are held by institutional investors. 0.3% of Bank of America shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Apple shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has more volatility and risk, BAC or AAPL?

Bank of America has a beta of 1.3, indicating that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Apple has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is BAC or AAPL more profitable?

Apple has a net margin of 24.30% compared to Bank of America's net margin of 14.56%. Apple's return on equity of 167.24% beat Bank of America's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Bank of America	14.56%	10.25%	0.84%
Apple	24.30%	167.24%	31.35%

Does the media refer more to BAC or AAPL?

In the previous week, Apple had 160 more articles in the media than Bank of America. MarketBeat recorded 278 mentions for Apple and 118 mentions for Bank of America. Bank of America's average media sentiment score of 0.94 beat Apple's score of 0.74 indicating that Bank of America is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Bank of America	68 Very Positive mention(s)	15 Positive mention(s)	20 Neutral mention(s)	11 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Apple	141 Very Positive mention(s)	22 Positive mention(s)	70 Neutral mention(s)	29 Negative mention(s)	14 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Summary

Apple beats Bank of America on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.