Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Acquired by Hartford Funds Management Co LLC

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 20.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 35,613 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,968 shares during the quarter. Bank of America comprises 0.1% of Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,199,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,648,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,852,222,000 after buying an additional 1,397,469 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 97.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,130,538,000 after purchasing an additional 20,362,295 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 40,518,019 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,109,383,000 after purchasing an additional 746,756 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 22,538,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $758,871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250,096 shares during the period. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 28.7% during the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,430,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $531,997,000 after buying an additional 4,335,882 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Erste Group Bank raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Bank of America from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.59.

Bank of America Trading Down 1.5 %

Bank of America stock traded down $0.54 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $37.01. The company had a trading volume of 30,280,209 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,130,859. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.80, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.39. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $24.96 and a 12-month high of $38.49. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $36.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.95.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.59%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.22%.

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.