Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Shares Up 0.1% Following Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)’s stock price shot up 0.1% during trading on Wednesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on the stock from $39.50 to $40.50. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $37.41 and last traded at $37.03. 6,173,548 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 40,707,594 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.01.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on BAC. HSBC reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (up previously from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, April 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.70.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of America

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 8.2% during the third quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 55,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after buying an additional 4,187 shares during the period. Auxano Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 234.5% during the fourth quarter. Auxano Advisors LLC now owns 27,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $921,000 after buying an additional 19,179 shares during the period. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% during the third quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 65,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,793,000 after buying an additional 2,332 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 228.3% during the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 67,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,273,000 after buying an additional 46,950 shares during the period. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth approximately $673,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $291.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 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. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $36.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.98.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share 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 the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a $0.24 dividend. 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 2.60%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.22%.

Bank of America Company Profile

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.