Wright Investors Service Inc. Trims Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Wright Investors Service Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 85,586 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,172 shares during the quarter. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,882,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Roundview Capital LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 135,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,596,000 after buying an additional 2,013 shares in the last quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its holdings in Bank of America by 150.3% during the 1st quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 1,985 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $82,000 after buying an additional 1,192 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 405,098 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $16,698,000 after buying an additional 16,319 shares in the last quarter. First Western Trust Bank purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $586,000. Finally, Pearl River Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $534,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 target price (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.29.

Bank of America Trading Up 2.1 %

BAC traded up $0.74 during trading on Thursday, reaching $35.97. The company had a trading volume of 12,160,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,134,176. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $38.35. The stock has a market cap of $283.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.41, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.39. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.67%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.