Royal Fund Management LLC Acquires 655 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Royal Fund Management LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 9,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 655 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $307,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,976 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after acquiring an additional 314 shares during the period. Kennedy Investment Group grew its stake in Bank of America by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Kennedy Investment Group now owns 58,007 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,953,000 after buying an additional 321 shares during the last quarter. Private Ocean LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 34.0% during the fourth quarter. Private Ocean LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 325 shares during the last quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in Bank of America by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Selective Wealth Management Inc. now owns 17,351 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $586,000 after buying an additional 334 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Legacy Capital Wealth Partners LLC now owns 8,770 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $295,000 after buying an additional 338 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on BAC. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.70.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.0 %

BAC stock traded up $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $37.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 34,082,662 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,339,492. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $38.49. The stock has a market cap of $291.31 billion, a PE ratio of 12.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.94 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.2 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.58%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 33.22%.

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.