B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG Has $20.81 Million Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG decreased its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 20.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 473,546 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 119,199 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $20,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth $5,226,989,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 4.9% during 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 in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 46,887,442 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,060,703,000 after acquiring an additional 1,671,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Bank of America by 0.7% in the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 297,858 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BAC. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup lowered their price target on Bank of America from $54.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.45.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $41.24 on Monday. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $34.15 and a 1-year high of $48.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $44.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $43.93. The firm has a market cap of $313.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.70 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.52%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 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.