Buy the Breakout on This Bank for 33% Gains: Bank of America (NYSE: BAC)

Over the past month, all 10 sectors on the S&P have ridden the wave of a rising market higher. But with a 6.7% gain, the financial sector has been one of the best performers as group.

Breaking this statistic down further, within the financial sector, banking stocks are particularly hot with Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) as a clear winner among banks.

While behemoths Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) and JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM) have each risen about 7% in the past month, BAC has more than doubled that performance, increasing nearly 16% over the same period.

Strong second-quarter results underlie BAC's gain. The bank is once again firing on all cylinders. On July 17, it reported "improvements in net interest income, investment and brokerage income, investment banking fees, sales and trading revenue, equity investment income ... as well as expense reductions," pushing quarterly revenue up 3% to $22.9 billion from $22.2 billion in the year ago quarter. Earnings skyrocketed, increasing 68% to $0.32 per share from $0.19 per share in the year-earlier period.  (more)

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