Ellsworth Advisors LLC Has $1.15 Million Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,071 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,081 shares during the period. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,147,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 108,111.3% in the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 193,168,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,397,725,000 after purchasing an additional 192,989,515 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth $3,436,543,000. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 97.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,130,538,000 after purchasing an additional 20,362,295 shares during the period. Snider Financial Group boosted its stake in Bank of America by 9,477.3% in the 1st quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,956,000 after purchasing an additional 14,297,496 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Bank of America by 3,474.6% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,658,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $480,579,000 after purchasing an additional 11,332,721 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. HSBC restated a “hold” rating and set a $39.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.15.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.11 on Friday, reaching $37.92. The stock had a trading volume of 42,262,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,416,252. The firm has a market capitalization of $299.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $24.96 and a 12 month high of $38.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $34.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.31.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.70 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.42% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The business’s revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.27%.

Bank of America Company 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.