SlateStone Wealth LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

SlateStone Wealth LLC increased its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 14,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,075 shares during the period. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $637,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA now owns 20,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $879,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares during the last quarter. Avalon Trust Co grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Avalon Trust Co now owns 1,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Prossimo Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Prossimo Advisors LLC now owns 8,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $390,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 13,204 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $580,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Keudell Morrison Wealth Management grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 8,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of 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. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped 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 note on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.64.

Bank of America Price Performance

BAC opened at $40.97 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.76. The firm has a market cap of $311.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.72, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $34.15 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio 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.