Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock Price Up 0.9%

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)’s stock price rose 0.9% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $37.53 and last traded at $37.20. Approximately 14,036,010 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 65% from the average daily volume of 40,628,469 shares. The stock had previously closed at $36.88.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and set a $39.00 target price (up previously from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.70.

Bank of America Price Performance

The stock has a market cap of $291.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.37. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $36.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $33.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.2 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, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.22%.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 8.2% during the third quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 55,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,515,000 after buying an additional 4,187 shares during the period. Auxano Advisors LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 234.5% during the fourth quarter. Auxano Advisors LLC now owns 27,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $921,000 after buying an additional 19,179 shares during the period. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 3.7% during the third quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 65,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,793,000 after buying an additional 2,332 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 228.3% in the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 67,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,273,000 after purchasing an additional 46,950 shares during the period. Finally, DiNuzzo Private Wealth Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at about $105,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

About Bank of America

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.