Tredje AP fonden Buys 272,992 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Tredje AP fonden raised its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 15.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,010,802 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 272,992 shares during the period. Tredje AP fonden’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $88,375,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vestcor Inc raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 58.8% during the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 281,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,356,000 after buying an additional 104,122 shares in the last quarter. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 68.2% during the 4th quarter. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC now owns 890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 361 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 926.9% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 600,846 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,407,000 after buying an additional 542,338 shares in the last quarter. Essential Planning LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,739,000. Finally, Liberty Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,999 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,187,000 after buying an additional 743 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BAC. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Baird R W raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Friday, March 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.64.

Bank of America Price Performance

NYSE BAC opened at $39.90 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $45.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.73. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $34.15 and a 52-week high of $48.08. The company has a market cap of $303.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.61%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.