Banco BTG Pactual S.A. Buys New Shares in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Banco BTG Pactual S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 40,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,775,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter valued at about $606,000. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 18.0% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 10,382 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 1,583 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 19.2% during the 3rd quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 7,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after acquiring an additional 1,144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 48.4% in the third quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 14,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $588,000 after acquiring an additional 4,837 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BAC shares. UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup decreased their price target 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. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Baird R W raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.45.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock opened at $43.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $329.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $44.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.87. 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 Co. has a one year low of $34.15 and a one year high of $48.08.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.40%. Bank of America’s 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.