Morgan Stanley Increases Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Price Target to $56.00

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its target price boosted by Morgan Stanley from $54.00 to $56.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 21.09% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Phillip Securities raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $0.40 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $46.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 23,879,823 shares, compared to its average volume of 37,186,727. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.34. The company has a market cap of $354.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America has a 12-month low of $31.40 and a 12-month high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its 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. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.70 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Bank of America will post 3.24 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% during 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 during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in Bank of America by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after purchasing an additional 895,884 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC increased its stake 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 worth $886,499,000 after acquiring an additional 601,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.