Shepherd Financial Partners LLC Purchases 7,487 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Shepherd Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 23.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 39,134 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,487 shares during the quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of BAC. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 4.0% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 2.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after purchasing an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after buying an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $696,940,000 after buying an additional 285,117 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.7 %

BAC stock opened at $47.43 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $363.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.73, a P/E/G ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $32.35 and a 1-year high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.70 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BAC has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

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.