Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Upgraded by Wolfe Research to “Outperform”

Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) from a peer perform rating to an outperform rating in a research note published on Friday morning, Marketbeat reports. The firm currently has $42.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group restated a neutral rating and set a $40.00 target price (up previously from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Odeon Capital Group cut shares of Bank of America from a buy rating to a hold rating and set a $33.90 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $38.53.

Bank of America Price Performance

BAC opened at $37.75 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $35.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $32.48. Bank of America has a 12-month low of $24.96 and a 12-month high of $38.35. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market capitalization of $297.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.06, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.39.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.94 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Bank of America will post 3.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 33.22%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,502,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,648,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,852,222,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397,469 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,408,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,056 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its position in Bank of America by 97.3% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,538,000 after acquiring an additional 20,362,295 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

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.