Merit Financial Group LLC Buys 10,550 Shares of Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 5.4% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 205,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,550 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $10,610,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,091,641,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $833,771,000 after purchasing an additional 9,782,208 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. bought a new position in Bank of America during the second quarter valued at approximately $202,439,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp lifted its position in Bank of America by 881.5% during the second quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 4,210,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $199,236,000 after purchasing an additional 3,781,417 shares during the period. Finally, LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 96.5% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,882,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $325,690,000 after purchasing an additional 3,379,335 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $64.00 to $63.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on Bank of America from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Bank of America from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on Bank of America from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Twenty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.30.

Bank of America Stock Performance

BAC stock opened at $52.53 on Tuesday. Bank of America Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.06 and a twelve month high of $57.55. The firm has a market cap of $383.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72, a PEG ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $54.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $52.11. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 14th. The financial services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. Bank of America had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 11.07%. The company had revenue of $4.53 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.73 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.82 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 29.24%.

Bank of America Profile

Bank of America Corporation is a multinational financial services company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It provides a broad array of banking, investment, asset management and related financial and risk management products and services to individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses, large corporations, governments and institutional investors. The firm operates through consumer banking, global wealth and investment management, global banking and markets businesses, offering capabilities across lending, deposits, payments, advisory and capital markets.

Its consumer-facing offerings include checking and savings accounts, mortgages, home equity lending, auto loans, credit cards and small business banking, supported by a nationwide branch network and digital channels.