Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Evercore ISI Analyst Says

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its price objective boosted by research analysts at Evercore ISI from $55.00 to $57.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “outperform” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 11.15% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on BAC. Phillip Securities cut Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Bank of America from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group upped their price target on Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Wall Street Zen cut Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bank of America from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $56.76.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.7%

BAC opened at $51.28 on Thursday. Bank of America has a one year low of $33.06 and a one year high of $52.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $379.83 billion, a PE ratio of 13.97, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $50.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.13. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.76% and a net margin of 15.70%.The firm had revenue of $28.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.81 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the sale, the insider owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 0.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 148,176,755 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,982,863,000 after buying an additional 403,652 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at $5,091,641,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Bank of America by 1.3% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,417,407 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,521,218,000 after buying an additional 803,570 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 5.2% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 51,405,673 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,432,516,000 after buying an additional 2,557,943 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in Bank of America by 45.1% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,007,718,000 after buying an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

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.