Howland Capital Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Howland Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 50,460 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 450 shares during the period. Howland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,913,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fortis Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the first quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 431.0% in the fourth quarter. Mark Sheptoff Financial Planning LLC now owns 1,062 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 862 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Bank of America from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Wolfe Research raised Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.41.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $41.81. 33,806,949 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,299,113. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $24.96 and a 12 month high of $41.90. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $39.41 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $326.97 billion, a PE ratio of 14.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.35.

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 net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The company had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.30%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.22%.

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.