Ritholtz Wealth Management Boosts Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.6% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 180,532 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,357 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $7,934,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,700,141 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after buying an additional 895,884 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after buying an additional 1,731,003 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after buying an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after buying an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. HSBC raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer reduced their target price on Bank of America from $57.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.18.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $46.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $45.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.34. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $31.27 and a 52 week high of $48.08. The stock has a market cap of $357.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.96, a P/E/G ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.