Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading 3% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) was up 3% during mid-day trading on Friday after Wolfe Research upgraded the stock from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating. Wolfe Research now has a $42.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $36.88 and last traded at $36.84. Approximately 15,573,619 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 62% from the average daily volume of 41,202,004 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.77.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on BAC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.53.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 108,111.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 192,989,515 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,734,407,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 360.9% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,255,514,000 after buying an additional 29,198,846 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 97.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,538,000 after buying an additional 20,362,295 shares during the period. Finally, Snider Financial Group increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 9,477.3% during the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,956,000 after acquiring an additional 14,297,496 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $291.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.75, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $35.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly 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 return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.22%.

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.