Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.24

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%.

Bank of America has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 3 years. Bank of America has a dividend payout ratio of 27.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Bank of America to earn $3.44 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.9%.

Bank of America Stock Down 1.1 %

BAC stock traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $37.91. The company had a trading volume of 40,957,844 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,603,840. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $299.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.39. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.98 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.61. Bank of America has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $38.49.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Bank of America will post 3.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Wolfe Research raised Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $40.00 target price (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $38.53.

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.