GAMMA Investing LLC Acquires Shares of 53,767 Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 53,767 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,829,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Pacific Wealth Strategies Group Inc. now owns 21,287 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $717,000 after purchasing an additional 417 shares during the last quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 6.5% during the fourth quarter. Marks Group Wealth Management Inc now owns 8,691 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $293,000 after purchasing an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Stockman Wealth Management Inc. now owns 236,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,952,000 after purchasing an additional 6,130 shares during the last quarter. SC&H Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at about $255,000. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 22,538,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $758,871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,250,096 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BAC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on Bank of America from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price target (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.53.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.64 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $38.37. The company had a trading volume of 39,159,885 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,775,906. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $38.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $35.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.48. The stock has a market capitalization of $302.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.39.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 1st were given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

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.