Bank of America Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24 (NYSE:BAC)

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%.

Bank of America has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. Bank of America has a payout ratio of 27.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Bank of America to earn $3.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.9%.

Bank of America Trading Down 1.1 %

BAC opened at $37.91 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $299.13 billion, a PE ratio of 13.12, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.39. 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 has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $38.49. The business has a 50 day moving average of $36.06 and a 200-day moving average of $32.64.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Bank of America will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BAC. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and set a $39.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.53.

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.