Kazazian Asset Management LLC Invests $698,000 in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Kazazian Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 15,879 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Amundi increased its stake in Bank of America by 37.1% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 37,819,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,747,658,000 after acquiring an additional 10,231,001 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in Bank of America by 31,021.6% in 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 period. Swedbank AB increased its stake in Bank of America by 81.4% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 12,776,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $561,513,000 after acquiring an additional 5,733,810 shares during the period. KBC Group NV increased its stake in Bank of America by 130.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,692,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $425,976,000 after acquiring an additional 5,493,817 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in Bank of America by 193.4% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,608,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $301,898,000 after acquiring an additional 5,015,378 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.4 %

BAC opened at $41.61 on Wednesday. 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 company has a market cap of $316.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.78. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.15 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. HSBC upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued 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 price target of $48.64.

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.