Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Bought by Empirical Finance LLC

Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.4% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 255,462 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,338 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $9,687,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Bank of America by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in Bank of America by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,056 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,363,928,000 after acquiring an additional 2,935,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Bank of America by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,189,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,216,000 after acquiring an additional 4,338,679 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:BAC traded down $0.22 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $41.59. 31,369,845 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,247,113. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $39.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.56. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $24.96 and a one year high of $41.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $325.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business’s revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect 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 given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Bank of America from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $37.00 to $46.00 in a report on Friday, June 14th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Bank of America from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Piper Sandler Companies raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday. Citigroup raised their price target on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $40.41.

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.