These big-cap stocks will likely beat the Street’s expectations, Bank of America says

Published Tue, Oct 12 202110:36 AM EDTUpdated Tue, Oct 12 202111:30 AM EDT

Bank of America has high hopes for a handful of stocks heading into an important earnings season. Earnings season kicked off this week, and analysts are expecting another strong series of reports. Third-quarter profits are expected to have risen 27.6% year over year, according to FactSet. That would be the third-highest growth rate since 2010. Bank of America said this is the "make-or-break" quarter with guidance in focus. The firm said it's important to know what to own and what to avoid. The firm screened through its buy-rated S & P 500 stocks to find the names its analysts expect will beat the Street. Bank of America has earnings and sales estimates for these stocks that are above consensus. The firm assigned each stock an earnings per share and sales Z-score, which represents the number of standard deviations that Bank of America analysts estimate are above consensus. The listed stocks also all beat on earnings per share and sales last quarter. Take a look at the list here: Energy names have been on a hot streak, as oil prices continue to rise. Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum are the energy names that earned spots on Bank of America's list. Occidental is expected to report its results on Nov. 4, while Exxon is slated to release its earnings on Oct. 29. Morgan Stanley is the only major U.S. bank that made the list. The financial company reports quarterly results Thursday. Discover Financial also turned up on Bank of America's list. The Wall Street firm expects social media giant Facebook to beat consensus estimates. Facebook shares have pulled back recently amid an app outage and a whistleblower report . The tech giant reports earnings Oct. 25. NetApp , which reports earnings in November, is the other technology company on the list expected to beat Street estimates this earnings season. Thermo Fisher , Honeywell International , Quest Diagnostics and Raytheon Technologies also earned spots on Bank of America's list. — with reporting from CNBC's Michael Bloom.

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Bank of America has high hopes for a handful of stocks heading into an important earnings season.

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