Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading Down 2.5% – Here’s What Happened

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)’s stock price traded down 2.5% on Friday . The company traded as low as $35.04 and last traded at $34.96. 17,641,708 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 55% from the average session volume of 39,059,689 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.85.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on BAC. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Bank of America from $49.50 to $43.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their target price on 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 report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.31.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.2 %

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 stock has a market capitalization of $273.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.16, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $42.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.69.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.70 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 3,940,121 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $173,168,000 after purchasing an additional 173,021 shares in the last quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth about $60,679,000. Arizona State Retirement System grew 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 valued at $89,150,000 after acquiring an additional 10,377 shares in the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 3,458,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,006,000 after purchasing an additional 38,258 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% in the fourth 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.