Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Price Target Lowered to $54.00 at Oppenheimer

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its price target cut by Oppenheimer from $57.00 to $54.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the financial services provider’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on BAC. Barclays upped their price target on Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley cut Bank of America from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $48.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.82.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $44.81 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $343.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.01. Bank of America has a fifty-two week low of $31.27 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 4,002,225 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.14, for a total transaction of $160,649,311.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 776,614,511 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,173,306,471.54. The trade was a 0.51 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,546,871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700,141 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,347,000 after buying an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the third 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 buying an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,499,000 after buying an additional 601,211 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position in 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 worth $676,264,000 after buying an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

About Bank of America

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.