Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 15.42%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 EPS.

Bank of America Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded up $0.69 on Wednesday, reaching $35.37. The company had a trading volume of 47,300,509 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,236,453. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $24.96 and a 52-week high of $38.35. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $279.09 billion, a PE ratio of 11.55, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.71%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.27%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 108,111.3% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 193,168,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,397,725,000 after purchasing an additional 192,989,515 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,436,543,000. Snider Financial Group grew its stake in Bank of America by 9,477.3% during the 1st quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,956,000 after purchasing an additional 14,297,496 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Bank of America by 3,474.6% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,658,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $480,579,000 after purchasing an additional 11,332,721 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 24.3% in the 4th quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,183,411 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,925,365,000 after buying an additional 11,187,352 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup raised their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 20th. HSBC reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.23.

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.