Waddell & Associates LLC Purchases 2,552 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Waddell & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 30.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,824 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,552 shares during the quarter. Waddell & Associates LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $476,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,940,121 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $173,168,000 after purchasing an additional 173,021 shares during the period. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $60,679,000. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in Bank of America by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 2,028,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $89,150,000 after purchasing an additional 10,377 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 3,458,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,006,000 after buying an additional 38,258 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 42,929,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,886,769,000 after purchasing an additional 297,858 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on BAC shares. Citigroup cut their price target on Bank of America from $54.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Baird R W upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays boosted their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.31.

Bank of America Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of BAC opened at $35.00 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $266.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $33.54 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.04 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for 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 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.97%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

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.