Bragg Financial Advisors Inc Increases Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Bragg Financial Advisors Inc boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 47,488 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,609 shares during the period. Bragg Financial Advisors Inc’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,087,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Collier Financial purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc boosted its stake in Bank of America by 3,883.2% in the 4th quarter. Life Planning Partners Inc now owns 559,995 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 545,936 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 53.0% during the 4th quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 797 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 276 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on BAC. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Baird R W upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.31.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:BAC opened at $35.93 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $273.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.24. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $33.07 and a one year high of $48.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.72.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.70 EPS. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

Bank of America 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.