First Bancorp Inc ME Invests $230,000 in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

First Bancorp Inc ME acquired a new position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,065 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position 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. increased its position 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 boosted its stake 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 worth $1,363,928,000 after purchasing an additional 2,935,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its stake 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 worth $1,353,216,000 after purchasing an additional 4,338,679 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $0.35 on Wednesday, reaching $39.03. 36,673,883 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,875,285. The firm has a market capitalization of $305.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.47, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.36. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $40.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50-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 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. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 33.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. StockNews.com cut shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Finally, Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.79.

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.