Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.10 EPS

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The financial services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.10, Zacks reports. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company had revenue of $27.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.83 billion.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock opened at $38.03 on Wednesday. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $33.07 and a one year high of $48.08. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $41.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $289.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Bank of America stock. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 30.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 108,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,143 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $4,785,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Bank of America from $49.50 to $43.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.31.

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.