Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading Up 1.1% on Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) was up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday after Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on the stock from $56.00 to $59.00. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $55.30 and last traded at $55.14. Approximately 40,210,939 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 0% from the average daily volume of 40,062,250 shares. The stock had previously closed at $54.56.

BAC has been the subject of several other research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets increased their target price on Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Argus boosted their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 in a report on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.86.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at approximately $5,091,641,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 640.5% in the third quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 46,516,728 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,399,798,000 after buying an additional 40,235,201 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Bank of America by 11.0% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 144,371,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,448,816,000 after buying an additional 14,275,810 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Bank of America by 124.8% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,619,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $833,771,000 after acquiring an additional 9,782,208 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at $224,863,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.1%

The business’s 50-day moving average price is $52.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.45. The company has a market cap of $402.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02 and a beta of 1.30. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.13. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.70% and a return on equity of 10.76%. The company had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.52%.

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.