Skylands Capital LLC Sells 35,450 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Skylands Capital LLC decreased its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 28.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 91,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 35,450 shares during the quarter. Skylands Capital LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,074,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 16,088 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $440,000 after purchasing an additional 869 shares in the last quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 6.4% in the third quarter. Atlantic Union Bankshares Corp now owns 194,621 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,329,000 after acquiring an additional 11,622 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its stake in Bank of America by 97.4% in the third quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 158,100 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,262,000 after acquiring an additional 78,012 shares during the period. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. lifted its stake in Bank of America by 1.8% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. now owns 101,454 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,778,000 after acquiring an additional 1,766 shares during the period. Finally, PDS Planning Inc grew its holdings in Bank of America by 10.1% during the 3rd quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 24,125 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $661,000 after acquiring an additional 2,221 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Odeon Capital Group cut shares of Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.90 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Erste Group Bank raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.53.

Bank of America Stock Performance

BAC stock traded down $0.12 during trading on Monday, reaching $37.71. The company had a trading volume of 13,647,890 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,092,895. The company has a market cap of $297.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.39. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $24.96 and a twelve month high of $38.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.13 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 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 firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. Bank of America’s 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.