Fortress Financial Group LLC Acquires New Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Fortress Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,150 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $270,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. First American Bank lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. First American Bank now owns 217,972 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $9,580,000 after buying an additional 18,782 shares in the last quarter. Hosking Partners LLP increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 4.5% during the fourth quarter. Hosking Partners LLP now owns 1,657,244 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,836,000 after acquiring an additional 72,122 shares during the period. Argyle Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Argyle Capital Management LLC now owns 92,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,083,000 after acquiring an additional 2,133 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 32.9% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 56,248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,472,000 after purchasing an additional 13,927 shares during the period. Finally, Sentinel Trust Co. LBA grew its stake in Bank of America by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. Sentinel Trust Co. LBA now owns 27,905 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,226,000 after purchasing an additional 5,285 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on BAC. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $44.17 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.74 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.50. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $34.03 and a 12 month high of $48.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $338.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.35%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

Bank of America Company Profile

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.