Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Stake Lifted by Shorepath Capital Management LLC

Shorepath Capital Management LLC raised its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 10.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 305,553 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 28,354 shares during the period. Bank of America comprises 9.2% of Shorepath Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its biggest position. Shorepath Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $11,587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,816 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $515,000 after purchasing an additional 916 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 88,882 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,434,000 after purchasing an additional 2,956 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 4,133 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $114,000 after purchasing an additional 428 shares during the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 23,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $641,000 after purchasing an additional 3,132 shares during the last quarter. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 654,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,912,000 after purchasing an additional 62,996 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. StockNews.com cut Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Wolfe Research upgraded Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Two investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.79.

Bank of America Price Performance

Bank of America stock traded down $0.75 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $38.63. The stock had a trading volume of 20,099,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,739,426. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $302.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.46, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.36. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $24.96 and a 1-year high of $40.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $38.71 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.95.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.49%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

Bank of America 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.