Retirement Systems of Alabama Trims Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Retirement Systems of Alabama trimmed its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,763,594 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 27,101 shares during the period. Bank of America makes up 0.6% of Retirement Systems of Alabama’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $165,410,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 1,375,216 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $54,569,000 after buying an additional 78,376 shares during the period. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 10.4% during the 3rd quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC now owns 19,798 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $786,000 after buying an additional 1,858 shares during the period. Verde Servicos Internacionais S.A. purchased a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $10,880,000. Bath Savings Trust Co raised its position in Bank of America by 5.5% in the third quarter. Bath Savings Trust Co now owns 9,620 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 16.8% in the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 8,655 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 1,243 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Price Performance

BAC opened at $46.73 on Wednesday. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $32.35 and a 52-week high of $48.08. The business has a fifty day moving average of $45.81 and a 200 day moving average of $42.79. The stock has a market cap of $358.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.51, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

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.