Leavell Investment Management Inc. Purchases 4,342 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Leavell Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 37.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,951 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,342 shares during the period. Leavell Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $701,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Accent Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 43.0% in the third quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 11,873 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its position in Bank of America by 237.6% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 36,089 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. Clarendon Private LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth about $798,000. Finally, Baker Avenue Asset Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 125.8% in the 3rd quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 61,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,421,000 after acquiring an additional 33,983 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on BAC. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Citigroup upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $46.32 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $45.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.02. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $32.49 and a 52-week high of $48.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $355.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.38, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.70 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

Bank of America Company 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.