Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading 0.2% Higher Following Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shot up 0.2% on Tuesday 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 $37.67 and last traded at $37.63. 5,770,010 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 40,824,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.55.

Several other research firms also recently commented on BAC. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wolfe Research upgraded Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, HSBC reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.70.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 55,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,515,000 after purchasing an additional 4,187 shares in the last quarter. Auxano Advisors LLC lifted its position in Bank of America by 234.5% during the 4th quarter. Auxano Advisors LLC now owns 27,356 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $921,000 after acquiring an additional 19,179 shares during the period. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Bank of America by 3.7% during the 3rd quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 65,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,793,000 after acquiring an additional 2,332 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Bank of America by 228.3% during the 4th quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 67,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,273,000 after acquiring an additional 46,950 shares during the period. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth about $673,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.2 %

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.98. The company has a market cap of $291.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.79, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The company’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business 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 is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. Bank of America’s 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.