Empower Advisory Group LLC Sells 1,416,633 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Empower Advisory Group LLC cut its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 39.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,173,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,416,633 shares during the quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $95,509,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,546,871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700,141 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,499,000 after purchasing an additional 601,211 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $696,940,000 after purchasing an additional 285,117 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Bank of America from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.4 %

BAC opened at $46.98 on Monday. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $32.49 and a 1-year high of $48.08. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $360.47 billion, a PE ratio of 14.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.30%.

Bank of America 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.