Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG Grows Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 35.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 860,005 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 226,246 shares during the quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $37,797,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 31,021.6% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 10,207,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $405,049,000 after purchasing an additional 10,175,100 shares during the period. Swedbank AB grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 81.4% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 12,776,184 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $561,513,000 after buying an additional 5,733,810 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 130.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,692,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $425,976,000 after buying an additional 5,493,817 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 193.4% in the third quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,608,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $301,898,000 after buying an additional 5,015,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3,550.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,547,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,804,560,000 after buying an additional 4,423,215 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $46.98 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $360.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.59, a PEG ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $45.75 and a 200-day moving average of $43.05. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $32.49 and a 52 week high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its 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 return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.69 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

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.