Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading Down 3.5% on Analyst Downgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shares dropped 3.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Oppenheimer lowered their price target on the stock from $46.00 to $45.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as low as $34.15 and last traded at $34.68. Approximately 95,566,094 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 171% from the average daily volume of 35,278,272 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.95.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on BAC. Barclays upped their target price on Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Bank of America from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. HSBC reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 price target (up previously from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.53.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 108,111.3% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 193,168,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,397,725,000 after acquiring an additional 192,989,515 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth approximately $3,734,407,000. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 360.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,255,514,000 after acquiring an additional 29,198,846 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 97.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,130,538,000 after acquiring an additional 20,362,295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Snider Financial Group boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 9,477.3% in the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,956,000 after acquiring an additional 14,297,496 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.5 %

The firm has a market cap of $282.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.39. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were paid a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.