Sepio Capital LP Trims Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Sepio Capital LP cut its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 8.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,020 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,046 shares during the period. Sepio Capital LP’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 142,289,199 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,243,000,000 after buying an additional 2,033,229 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,226,989,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 59,613,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,620,028,000 after purchasing an additional 2,806,927 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 46,887,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,060,703,000 after purchasing an additional 1,671,610 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 42,929,896 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,886,769,000 after purchasing an additional 297,858 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 17th. Baird R W upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.31.

Bank of America Stock Down 7.7 %

Bank of America stock opened at $34.37 on Monday. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $32.70 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08. The company has a market cap of $261.32 billion, a PE ratio of 10.67, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.74 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.94.

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 for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.70 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 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.