Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading 0.2% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shares shot up 0.2% during trading on Tuesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $46.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as high as $37.67 and last traded at $37.63. 5,770,010 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 40,824,316 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.55.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on BAC. Morgan Stanley upgraded Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 price target (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.59.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Fortis Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America during the third quarter worth $25,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc grew its position in Bank of America by 98.1% in the 3rd quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 1,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.1 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.20 and a 200-day moving average of $32.88. 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 $295.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.39.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.94 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 33.22%.

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.