Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Shares Up 0.2% After Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shot up 0.2% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $46.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $37.67 and last traded at $37.63. 5,770,010 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 40,824,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.55.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BAC. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.59.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of America

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at $3,734,407,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Bank of America by 360.9% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,255,514,000 after buying an additional 29,198,846 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 97.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,538,000 after buying an additional 20,362,295 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its holdings in Bank of America by 1,071.8% during the 4th quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 14,082,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $474,150,000 after buying an additional 12,880,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Bank of America by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.99 billion, a PE ratio of 12.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.39.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. Bank of America’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

About Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services for individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, institutional investors, large corporations, and governments worldwide. It operates in four segments: Consumer Banking, Global Wealth & Investment Management (GWIM), Global Banking, and Global Markets.