Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Price Target Raised to $40.50

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its price objective lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $39.50 to $40.50 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the financial services provider's stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bank of America from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and lifted their price target for the company from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Bank of America from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Odeon Capital Group downgraded shares of Bank of America from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $33.90 price target for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. 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. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $38.70.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $36.95. 32,182,780 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 41,025,328. Bank of America has a 1 year low of $24.96 and a 1 year high of $38.49. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $36.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.94 earnings per share. The company's revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. Bank of America's payout ratio is presently 33.22%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of America

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,648,727 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,852,222,000 after buying an additional 1,397,469 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $1,408,520,000 after buying an additional 1,315,056 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew 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 valued at $1,130,538,000 after buying an additional 20,362,295 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.