Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Acquired by Gleason Group Inc.

Gleason Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 101,143 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,318 shares during the period. Bank of America makes up approximately 0.8% of Gleason Group Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest holding. Gleason Group Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,405,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BAC. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 108,111.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 192,989,515 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth $3,436,543,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 97.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,130,538,000 after purchasing an additional 20,362,295 shares during the last quarter. Snider Financial Group raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 9,477.3% during the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,956,000 after purchasing an additional 14,297,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3,474.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,658,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $480,579,000 after purchasing an additional 11,332,721 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.15.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC traded up $0.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $37.92. The company had a trading volume of 42,262,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,416,252. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.59 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $31.35. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $38.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $299.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results on Friday, January 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.01. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.42% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The business had revenue of $22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.85 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.53%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 31.27%.

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.