Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Acquired by Griffin Asset Management Inc.

Griffin Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 343,197 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,579 shares during the quarter. Bank of America makes up 1.8% of Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $15,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in 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 during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,499,000 after purchasing an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 23.6% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $646,693,000 after buying an additional 3,109,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on BAC. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $47.06 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $361.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.62, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.63. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $32.35 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.67 EPS for the current 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.