Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Sells 241,710 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. trimmed its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 14.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,382,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 241,710 shares during the quarter. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $60,775,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BAC. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,042,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $279,441,000 after purchasing an additional 50,849 shares during the last quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 146,204 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,801,000 after purchasing an additional 1,866 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. raised its stake in Bank of America by 4.8% during the third quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 20,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $833,000 after purchasing an additional 959 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Bank of America by 120.2% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $814,000 after buying an additional 10,497 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in Bank of America by 24.0% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 9,397,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $372,911,000 after buying an additional 1,816,804 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BAC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Barclays raised their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Bank of America stock opened at $45.51 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $346.09 billion, a PE ratio of 14.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $34.15 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $45.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.70 earnings per share. Bank of America’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

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.