HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Acquires 7,315 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 4.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 159,043 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,315 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $7,300,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after acquiring an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $606,000. Fred Alger Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Fred Alger Management LLC now owns 190,337 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,553,000 after purchasing an additional 3,335 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its position in Bank of America by 221.3% in the third quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 20,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $823,000 after purchasing an additional 14,281 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Encompass More Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 40.2% during the third quarter. Encompass More Asset Management now owns 7,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after purchasing an additional 2,237 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price target 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. Baird R W upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.45.

Bank of America Stock Down 3.1 %

BAC stock opened at $41.24 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The business has a 50 day moving average of $44.45 and a 200 day moving average of $43.93. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $34.15 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The firm has a market cap of $313.50 billion, a PE ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was 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.