Beacon Financial Advisory LLC Raises Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Beacon Financial Advisory LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 9.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,611 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 666 shares during the quarter. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position 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 purchasing an additional 1,700,141 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 worth $1,794,164,000 after buying an additional 1,731,003 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its holdings in 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 buying an additional 601,211 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after acquiring an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $47.74 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $366.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.83, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $32.35 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.85.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.