Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 43,375 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,752 shares during the quarter. Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,906,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of BAC. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in Bank of America by 31,021.6% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 10,207,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $405,049,000 after acquiring an additional 10,175,100 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 81.4% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 12,776,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $561,513,000 after purchasing an additional 5,733,810 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 130.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,692,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $425,976,000 after purchasing an additional 5,493,817 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in Bank of America by 193.4% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,608,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $301,898,000 after buying an additional 5,015,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D1 Capital Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter valued at about $174,858,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.5 %

Bank of America stock opened at $44.17 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $34.03 and a 12 month high of $48.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $338.87 billion, a PE ratio of 13.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. 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 business has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.50.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio 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.