Valmark Advisers Inc. Sells 333 Shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)

Valmark Advisers Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 19,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 333 shares during the period. Valmark Advisers Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $814,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth about $5,226,989,000. Capital World Investors lifted its position in Bank of America by 23.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 88,210,527 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,876,853,000 after buying an additional 17,031,143 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Bank of America by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 122,437,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,381,126,000 after buying an additional 11,691,451 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Bank of America by 37.1% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 37,819,980 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,747,658,000 after buying an additional 10,231,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in Bank of America by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,935,940 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,985,785,000 after buying an additional 9,980,859 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $46.66 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $351.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $42.72 and a 200 day moving average of $43.30. Bank of America Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.07 and a twelve month high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.10. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 14.56%. The company had revenue of $27.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.83 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.95%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on BAC shares. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $45.00 to $50.00 in a report on Friday, March 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. 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 report on Wednesday, April 16th. Evercore ISI lowered their price target on Bank of America from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.40.

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.