Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock Price Up 1.8% on Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shot up 1.8% on Thursday after BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on the stock from $36.00 to $37.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has a market perform rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $35.91 and last traded at $35.87. 8,822,087 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 41,098,621 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.23.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Odeon Capital Group lowered shares of Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.90 target price on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. One investment 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’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.29.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 108,111.3% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 193,168,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,397,725,000 after acquiring an additional 192,989,515 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in Bank of America by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,648,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,852,222,000 after buying an additional 1,397,469 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,183,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,925,365,000 after buying an additional 11,187,352 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.5 %

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $35.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.24. The company has a market cap of $282.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.68%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 33.22%.

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.