Comment on Elections have little impact on stock prices. Here's what investors should focus on instead.

Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BIThe election outcome is unlikely to have a big influence on stock prices, Bank of America said.Stock-market performance is driven by profit growth, not political-landscape shifts, the bank said.Past policies have had unexpected impacts, highlighting the importance of sustainable profit growth.The outcome of the presidential election in November should have little impact on the direction of stock prices, Bank of America said.In a note on Friday, Savita Subramanian, a Bank of America strategist, said the stock market rarely cares about which political party controls the White House.Instead, investors' focus should be squarely on profit growth."Profits accelerating are far more important than who is sitting in the Oval Office," Subramanian said.Furthermore, targeted policies from lawmakers on Capitol Hill often have had the opposite impact on a sector than investors would have thought.For example, when Donald Trump took office in 2017, energy stocks were seen as a likely winner because of his friendly stance toward oil drilling, while renewable-energy stocks were seen as a likely loser.Instead, the energy sector was the worst-performing sector when Trump was in office, losing 29% even as the S&P 500 surged 83%.