BofA Earnings Not So Disappointing: Pro

Bank of America's earnings report disappointed Wall Street on Wednesday, but one analyst said the market is missing what was an "upbeat" quarter and that the stock can go 30 percent higher.

"Bank of America's biggest problem was that they reported on the wrong day when we had a flare-up in concerns about German debt," Anthony Polini, a banks analyst at Raymond James, told CNBC. "This quarter on an operating basis was clearly upbeat."

Polini said that what stood out for Bank of America in the quarter was its lending. "They actually had decent loan growth and everyone else had a much more noticeable decline," he said, noting the bank's commercial loans were up 3.4 percent in the quarter.

"Loan growth at BofA certainly looks better than their mega-cap peers, at least this quarter," he added.

(Read More: Bank of America Earnings Fall Short of Expectations)

The banks also recorded some high expenses that will come off in the second quarter, adding at least 6 or 7 cents in the second quarter, the analyst said. Litigation expenses should also be lower in 2013 than in 2012, "so that's actually helping operating leverage as we go forward."

While there were some positives, mortgage banking income was weak and "it wasn't a blowout quarter from an investment banking standpoint," Polini said. But the mortgage business is a lower percentage of total revenue than it is at Wells Fargo and less likely to cause an EPS miss on any given quarter, the analyst said.

The consumer business has also been somewhat weak. Credit Suisse analyst Moshe Orenbuch told CNBC in a separate interview, "The consumer business has been a lagging problem that will still be with them as long as interest rates are low."

Orenbuch, who has a "neutral" rating on the stock, characterized the quarter as "OK" overall.

Polini is a bit more bullish not only on first-quarter results but also the outlook for Bank of America's stock price. "It obviously took a huge run and sort of treaded water for the past couple of months," he said, adding $15 is a reasonable target one year from now.

That target implies almost 30 percent upside from current levels.

By CNBC's Justin Menza. Follow him on Twitter @JustinMenza

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Disclosures:

Bank of America is an investment banking client of Credit Suisse and Credit Suisse provided noninvestment banking services to the company within the past 12 months.

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