Short Interest in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Expands By 6.3%

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 72,080,000 shares, an increase of 6.3% from the March 15th total of 67,790,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 40,330,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.8 days. Approximately 0.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Fortis Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 98.1% in the third quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 1,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the period. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Castleview Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the first quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up previously from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.23.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $35.22 on Thursday. Bank of America has a 1 year low of $24.96 and a 1 year high of $38.35. The company has a market cap of $277.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $35.55 and a 200-day moving average of $32.21.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.42% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America will post 3.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.27%.

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.