BofA (BAC) Tops Q3 Views... Or Did It? Analysts Consider Special Items...

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) is looking rather spry Tuesday morning following it's third-quarter earnings report issued ahead of the bell.

BofA reported earnings of 56 cents per share on revenue of $28.45 billion. Although certain items were included in the quarterly results, the numbers appear to have bested analyst views calling for a more modest gain of 20 cents per share on revenue of $25.95 billion.

With shares up over 3 percent in early trading, let's see what analysts have to say:

• Goldman Sachs said earnings excluding items came in at about 9 cents per share, missing views. Goldman said the biggest disappointment came from capital markets, "where core revenues fell 60% q/q, with FICC declining 88% to $314 million, while equities declined 31% to $756 million." Goldman also noted "Banking fell 36% with declines in debt underwriting (-46%) leading the decline."
  
  Goldman said, with expectations lowered, "and given where its stock is trading (less than 50% of tangible book), the market may not view this overly negatively."
  
  
• Wells Fargo believes it was a typically messy quarter for BofA, and items amounted to about a $3 billion post-tax benefit. "Earnings unlikely to provide a positive catalyst for BAC shares in the near term relative to peers, though resolution of Euro zone challenges may offer a less fundamentally driven catalyst," according to the firm.
  
  Wells Fargo noted core trading net investment income fell 7 percent to $10.7 billion and net investment margins compressed 27 basis points to 2.79 percent.
  
  
• Deutsche Bank said, "As expected, results included a $0.33 gain from the partial sale of CCB shares. There were also a number of other lumpy items that management pointed to... These netted to $3b (including $1.7b of reserve release). Excluding CVA/DVA, the CCB gain, the items from page 15 and reserve release it appears BAC was close to breakeven this quarter (mostly due to weak FICC trading results)."
  
  Deutsche also pointed to a Tier 1 common ratio which increased 42 basis points to 8.65 percent under Basel 1, as the $4.5 billion of CVA is not included in regulatory capital.

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