Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Acquires 1,315,056 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,315,056 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 0.53% of Bank of America worth $1,408,520,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Bank of America by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,648,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,852,222,000 after buying an additional 1,397,469 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,130,538,000 after acquiring an additional 20,362,295 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 17.1% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 37,649,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,267,666,000 after buying an additional 5,484,219 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its stake in Bank of America by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 22,538,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $758,871,000 after buying an additional 1,250,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,430,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $531,997,000 after buying an additional 4,335,882 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BAC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.70.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.5 %

BAC stock traded down $0.18 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $37.66. The stock had a trading volume of 11,865,741 shares, compared to its average volume of 40,269,715. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business has a 50-day moving average of $36.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $33.31. The firm has a market cap of $294.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.37. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $24.96 and a 52-week high of $38.49.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.55%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.