Searle & CO. Increases Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Searle & CO. boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 22.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 245,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 44,351 shares during the quarter. Bank of America accounts for 2.3% of Searle & CO.’s holdings, making the stock its 6th largest holding. Searle & CO.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $8,263,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fortis Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc boosted its position in Bank of America by 98.1% in the third quarter. Glass Jacobson Investment Advisors llc now owns 1,018 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 504 shares in the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. ZRC Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 192.3% in the fourth quarter. ZRC Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 750 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Private Ocean LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 34.0% in the fourth quarter. Private Ocean LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently weighed in on BAC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $33.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.70.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of BAC traded down $0.06 on Wednesday, reaching $36.95. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 32,190,953 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,024,566. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $24.96 and a twelve month high of $38.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $291.56 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.39. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $36.26 and a 200-day moving average of $32.95.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.19 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.22%.

Bank of America 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.