Argent Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Argent Advisors Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 48,905 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 316 shares during the quarter. Argent Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,149,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of BAC. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% during the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,042,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $279,441,000 after buying an additional 50,849 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $611,692,000 after acquiring an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. Adero Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 6,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after acquiring an additional 961 shares during the last quarter. Aljian Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter valued at about $2,029,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,516,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of BAC opened at $41.47 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $315.26 billion, a PE ratio of 12.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $34.15 and a 1 year high of $48.08. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.77.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.51%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BAC. HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Baird R W raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.64.

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.