Alerus Financial NA Purchases 96,571 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Alerus Financial NA lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 823.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 108,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 96,571 shares during the period. Alerus Financial NA’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $4,760,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BAC. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Bank of America by 3.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $611,692,000 after buying an additional 569,385 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $606,000. Freedom Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 14.5% during the 3rd quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,917 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,227,000 after purchasing an additional 3,910 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $13,162,000. Finally, Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $427,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. HSBC upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays raised their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.45.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.5 %

BAC stock opened at $42.61 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $34.15 and a 52-week high of $48.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market cap of $323.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.23, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.85.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 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.