Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. Grows Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. raised its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 473,818 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,769 shares during the quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $20,824,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Swedbank AB raised its position in Bank of America by 0.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,042,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $279,441,000 after purchasing an additional 50,849 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Bank of America by 3.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $611,692,000 after purchasing an additional 569,385 shares during the period. Adero Partners LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 15.9% in the third quarter. Adero Partners LLC now owns 6,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $277,000 after purchasing an additional 961 shares during the period. Aljian Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $2,029,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the third quarter worth $1,516,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BAC. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Baird R W raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.64.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE BAC opened at $41.47 on Tuesday. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $34.15 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company 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. The company has a fifty day moving average of $45.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.77.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.70 earnings per share. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.51%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

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.