Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. Trims Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C. cut its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 8.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 24,119 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,357 shares during the quarter. Fortitude Advisory Group L.L.C.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $812,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,397,469 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 97.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,538,000 after purchasing an additional 20,362,295 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.9% during 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 in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 28.7% in the 3rd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 19,430,142 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $531,997,000 after acquiring an additional 4,335,882 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.2 %

BAC traded down $0.06 on Wednesday, hitting $36.95. The company had a trading volume of 32,182,780 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,025,328. The firm has a market cap of $291.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.89, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.39. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $24.96 and a 1 year high of $38.49. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $36.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $32.95. 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 (NYSE:BAC) last issued 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 firm had revenue of $25.82 billion for 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%. Bank of America’s revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm 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 year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.60%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 33.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. Barclays lifted 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 note on Tuesday, January 2nd. 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. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.70.

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.