Amundi Buys 10,231,001 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Amundi grew its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 37.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 37,819,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 10,231,001 shares during the period. Bank of America comprises approximately 0.6% of Amundi’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Amundi owned about 0.49% of Bank of America worth $1,747,658,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 2,028,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,150,000 after acquiring an additional 10,377 shares in the last quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 43.0% in the third quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,567,000 after acquiring an additional 11,873 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 237.6% in the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after acquiring an additional 36,089 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 1,700,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Keybank National Association OH grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 3,458,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,006,000 after acquiring an additional 38,258 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Baird R W upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.64.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of BAC stock opened at $41.39 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $34.15 and a 52-week high of $48.08. The company has a market capitalization of $314.72 billion, a PE ratio of 12.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s fifty day moving average is $45.61 and its 200 day moving average is $43.68.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. The business 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 firm’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.51%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.