Congress Wealth Management LLC DE Cuts Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Congress Wealth Management LLC DE trimmed its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 15.3% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 148,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 26,782 shares during the quarter. Congress Wealth Management LLC DE’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $5,617,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. First National Bank of Omaha boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. First National Bank of Omaha now owns 24,034 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $658,000 after acquiring an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 194.9% in the 3rd quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 74,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,046,000 after buying an additional 49,395 shares during the last quarter. Ariel Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 156,608 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,288,000 after buying an additional 11,237 shares during the last quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Alps Advisors Inc. now owns 34,540 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 1,333 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 6,880,173 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $188,379,000 after buying an additional 222,500 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BAC shares. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Bank of America from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $46.00 in a report on Friday, June 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.79.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC traded up $0.24 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $40.01. 26,766,562 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,869,418. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $38.91 and a 200-day moving average of $36.12. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $24.96 and a one year high of $40.34. The firm has a market cap of $312.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.84, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

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.