Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management Has $2 Million Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 29.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 59,300 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,408 shares during the quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,997,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of BAC. Baystate Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 28.1% in the third quarter. Baystate Wealth Management LLC now owns 21,135 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $579,000 after buying an additional 4,634 shares in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% in the third quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 48,715 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,333,000 after buying an additional 2,716 shares in the last quarter. Washington Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter valued at $840,000. Kanawha Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.0% in the third quarter. Kanawha Capital Management LLC now owns 17,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $469,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBT Bank N A NY lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 78.8% in the third quarter. NBT Bank N A NY now owns 48,562 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,330,000 after buying an additional 21,403 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Odeon Capital Group lowered shares of Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.90 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.70.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC traded up $0.16 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $37.85. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 29,110,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 40,598,000. The company has a market cap of $295.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.10, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.31. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $24.96 and a 52-week high of $38.49.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued 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 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%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.54%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.