Essex LLC Buys Shares of 9,221 Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Essex LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,221 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $405,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $5,546,871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700,141 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,003 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after purchasing an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Bank of America by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $696,940,000 after purchasing an additional 285,117 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays raised their price target on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $47.43 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.92. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $32.35 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a market cap of $363.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.70 earnings per share. Bank of America’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 32.30%.

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.