Employees Retirement System of Texas Increases Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 158,455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,880 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Bank of America were worth $69,640,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 142,289,199 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,243,000,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,229 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,226,989,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 4.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 59,613,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,620,028,000 after buying an additional 2,806,927 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 46,887,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,060,703,000 after buying an additional 1,671,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 42,929,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,886,769,000 after buying an additional 297,858 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on BAC. UBS Group upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Robert W. Baird upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Bank of America from $54.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.31.

Bank of America Trading Down 7.7 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $34.37 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $32.70 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a market cap of $261.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.67, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $43.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.94.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect 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 announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.03%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

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.