New Bank Giveaway: Online Trading

Article Excerpt

BANK OF AMERICA CORP. $54 (New York symbol BAC; Income Portfolio, Finance sector; WSSF Rating: Above average) hopes to give customers a reason to stick with it by giving them free stock trades. This has a big cost advantage over old-fashioned giveaway items like clocks and toasters: the marginal cost of those extra trades verges on zero. The bank will let customers make up to 30 commission-free trades a month if they maintain at least $25,000 in savings or other accounts. It hopes this will spur customers to keep their cash in regular deposit accounts, instead of shifting it to higher-yielding investments such as CD’s or accounts at rival banks. Meanwhile, the company is gaining from its acquisition of credit card specialist MBNA Corp. In the third quarter of 2006, its income rose 42.1%, but per-share earnings grew just 24.2%, to $1.18 from $0.95 a year earlier, due to more shares outstanding. Revenue grew 31.7%, because it acquired MBNA at the start…