Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Trims Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC lessened its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 117,817 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 7,635 shares during the period. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $4,468,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Graybill Wealth Management LTD. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% during the first quarter. Graybill Wealth Management LTD. now owns 118,246 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,484,000 after buying an additional 2,050 shares during the period. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 16.8% during the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 63,812 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,420,000 after purchasing an additional 9,191 shares during the last quarter. Corundum Group Inc. increased its position in Bank of America by 83.0% during the first quarter. Corundum Group Inc. now owns 25,016 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $949,000 after purchasing an additional 11,349 shares during the last quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 3.0% during the first quarter. Defined Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,179 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $538,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Finally, St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 1.5% during the first quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC now owns 96,036 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,642,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on BAC. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.79.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.27 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $39.27. The stock had a trading volume of 29,461,014 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,857,660. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $24.96 and a twelve month high of $40.34. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $307.11 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.36.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.94 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.44%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.