UBS Group Upgrades Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to “Buy”

UBS Group upgraded shares of Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $53.00 target price on the financial services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $43.00.

BAC has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Oppenheimer lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $57.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Bank of America from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.50.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $46.10 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $353.72 billion, a PE ratio of 16.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. The business has a 50-day moving average of $45.30 and a 200-day moving average of $42.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Bank of America has a 1-year low of $31.27 and a 1-year high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total transaction of $369,952,591.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter worth $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc lifted its position in Bank of America by 525.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 852 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth about $45,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the 3rd quarter valued at about $73,000. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.