Castleark Management LLC Makes New $8.50 Million Investment in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Castleark Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 193,290 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,495,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Collier Financial bought a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Life Planning Partners Inc raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3,883.2% during the fourth quarter. Life Planning Partners Inc now owns 559,995 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 545,936 shares during the last quarter. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective 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. Cfra Research boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $58.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.50.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $44.62 on Wednesday. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $33.07 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $336.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.86, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.27. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $40.23 and its 200-day moving average is $43.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.10. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The company had revenue of $27.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.83 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 30.95%.

Bank of America Company 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.