Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Royal Bank Of Canada Analyst Says

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its target price boosted by Royal Bank Of Canada from $53.00 to $56.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,MarketScreener reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

BAC has been the topic of several other reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on shares of Bank of America from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Baird R W cut shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Phillip Securities cut shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.38.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.3%

NYSE BAC opened at $50.63 on Wednesday. Bank of America has a twelve month low of $33.06 and a twelve month high of $52.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $374.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.80, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $49.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.26.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.75%.

Bank of America declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, July 23rd that permits the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. The trade was a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter valued at about $5,091,641,000. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,007,718,000 after buying an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 124.8% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,619,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $833,771,000 after buying an additional 9,782,208 shares during the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter valued at about $202,439,000. Finally, Unisphere Establishment raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1,642.5% during the first quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,195,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $175,057,000 after buying an additional 3,954,250 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

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.