Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Shares Up 0.2% on Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shot up 0.2% on Tuesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $46.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $37.67 and last traded at $37.63. 5,770,010 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 40,824,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.55.

BAC has been the subject of several other reports. Evercore ISI upped their price objective 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. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up previously from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.59.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fortis Group Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc increased its stake in Bank of America by 98.1% in the third quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 1,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Price Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $36.20 and a 200 day moving average of $32.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $295.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.39.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.56%. Bank of America’s payout ratio 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.