Greatmark Investment Partners Inc. Lowers Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Greatmark Investment Partners Inc. lowered its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 229,410 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,357 shares during the quarter. Bank of America accounts for approximately 1.2% of Greatmark Investment Partners Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Greatmark Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $7,724,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% during 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 position in Bank of America by 97.3% during 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 during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Bank of America by 1.9% during 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. California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in Bank of America by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 22,538,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $758,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,250,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,430,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $531,997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,335,882 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Bank of America from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Barclays raised their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Wolfe Research upgraded Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.53.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE BAC traded down $0.17 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $37.66. 14,542,797 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 41,102,180. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $38.49. The company has a market cap of $297.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.06, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.39. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $36.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

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