Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. Increases Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Benedict Financial Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 32.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,868 shares during the period. Benedict Financial Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $691,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BAC. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700,141 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 601,211 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $696,940,000 after buying an additional 285,117 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $47.43 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $32.35 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The stock has a market cap of $363.89 billion, a PE ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $45.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $42.92.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

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.