Ninety One UK Ltd Decreases Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ninety One UK Ltd lessened its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,932,535 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 99,407 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $65,068,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 108,111.3% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth $3,436,543,000. Northern Trust Corp grew 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 in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 40,518,019 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,109,383,000 after acquiring an additional 746,756 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer cut their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price target (up previously from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. HSBC reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Odeon Capital Group cut Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.90 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.29.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE BAC traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $35.66. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 21,555,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,259,438. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $281.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.39. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $24.96 and a 1 year high of $38.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

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 2.69%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.