Howard Financial Services LTD. Purchases 794 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Howard Financial Services LTD. grew its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 794 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $333,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth $257,000. Ieq Capital LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 17.2% during the 2nd quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 305,830 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,163,000 after buying an additional 44,821 shares during the last quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in Bank of America by 1.3% in the second quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 35,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,414,000 after buying an additional 446 shares during the last quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 7.0% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 97,751 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,887,000 after acquiring an additional 6,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Callan Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 8.1% during the second quarter. Callan Capital LLC now owns 26,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,069,000 after acquiring an additional 2,019 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays upped their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. HSBC raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of BAC opened at $46.54 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $357.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.93, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $31.40 and a 12 month high of $48.08. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $45.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $42.37. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The firm’s revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. Analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.