Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Trims Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA decreased its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 11,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 782 shares during the quarter. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $488,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,042,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $279,441,000 after purchasing an additional 50,849 shares in the last quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 202.1% during the 3rd quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 18,531 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $735,000 after buying an additional 12,396 shares during the period. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter worth $99,000. Lincluden Management Ltd. boosted its position in Bank of America by 0.9% during the third quarter. Lincluden Management Ltd. now owns 154,707 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,139,000 after purchasing an additional 1,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV increased its position in Bank of America by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV now owns 164,361 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 11,612 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the company. HSBC raised 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Evercore ISI reduced 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 note on Friday, January 17th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Bank of America from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $46.19 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.56. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $34.03 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08. The firm has a market cap of $354.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. 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 (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.30%.

Bank of America 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.