Cigna Investments Inc. New Decreases Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Cigna Investments Inc. New reduced its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 69,001 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,422 shares during the period. Bank of America comprises approximately 0.5% of Cigna Investments Inc. New’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest position. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,032,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of BAC. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Bank of America by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700,141 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after acquiring an additional 601,211 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 0.4% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after buying an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $696,940,000 after buying an additional 285,117 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 brokerages have issued reports on BAC. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $46.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $357.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $32.35 and a 12-month high of $48.08. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.77 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.93.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.23%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

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.