Clarity Wealth Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Clarity Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 5,450 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after acquiring an additional 9,879,524 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,520,000 after acquiring an additional 1,315,056 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,363,928,000 after acquiring an additional 2,935,040 shares during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,189,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,353,216,000 after acquiring an additional 4,338,679 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $39.77. The stock had a trading volume of 52,028,200 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,164,596. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $24.96 and a 12-month high of $40.34. The company has a market cap of $311.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 1.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $38.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.94 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on BAC. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Wolfe Research upgraded Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target for the company in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Bank of America from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $46.00 in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $39.79.

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.