Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Holdings Decreased by Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.

Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. trimmed its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 64,315 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,064 shares during the period. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,827,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew 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 buying an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after buying an additional 1,731,003 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after buying an additional 601,211 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Bank of America by 0.4% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Bank of America by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after buying an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on BAC shares. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Phillip Securities raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays increased their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Trading Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $46.25 on Monday. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $32.35 and a 12 month high of $48.08. The company has a market cap of $354.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 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. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.78.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

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.