Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp Reduces Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lowered its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 620,972 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,896 shares during the period. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $27,292,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.8% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 0.8% during the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,090,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,268,000 after purchasing an additional 9,137 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Bank of America during the third quarter worth about $306,000. Zacks Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter worth about $89,332,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 11.4% in the third quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 118,429 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,699,000 after purchasing an additional 12,138 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Down 7.7 %

Shares of BAC opened at $34.37 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $33.67 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08. The firm has a market cap of $261.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.67, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $43.74 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on BAC. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lifted their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company 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 increased their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.31.

Bank of America 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.