Federated Hermes Inc. Buys 57,179 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 4,640,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,179 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of Bank of America worth $156,233,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 8.2% in the third quarter. Schechter Investment Advisors LLC now owns 55,348 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,515,000 after buying an additional 4,187 shares in the last quarter. Eastern Bank increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 354.5% in the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 119,713 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,278,000 after buying an additional 93,375 shares in the last quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% in the third quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 65,495 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,793,000 after buying an additional 2,332 shares in the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 228.3% in the fourth quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 67,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,273,000 after buying an additional 46,950 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at $673,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Odeon Capital Group lowered Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.90 target price for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.29.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.8 %

NYSE BAC traded up $0.64 during trading on Thursday, hitting $35.87. The stock had a trading volume of 14,880,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,172,090. The company has a market capitalization of $283.04 billion, a PE ratio of 12.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.39. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $35.55 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.79. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $24.96 and a 12 month high of $38.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.13 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.