Vest Financial LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 10.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 770,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 75,157 shares during the quarter. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $33,880,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,546,871,000 after buying an additional 1,700,141 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 2.8% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after purchasing an additional 601,211 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Bank of America by 0.4% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $696,940,000 after purchasing an additional 285,117 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $47.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The company has a market cap of $363.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $45.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.88. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $32.35 and a 1-year high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. UBS Group upgraded 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 report on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One investment 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 company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

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.