Ethos Financial Group LLC Raises Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ethos Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,452 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 492 shares during the quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $285,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,648,727 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,852,222,000 after buying an additional 1,397,469 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,408,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,056 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 97.3% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,130,538,000 after buying an additional 20,362,295 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 37,649,708 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,267,666,000 after buying an additional 5,484,219 shares during the period. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in Bank of America by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 22,538,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $758,871,000 after acquiring an additional 1,250,096 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock traded up $0.58 on Thursday, reaching $38.29. 26,851,139 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 40,358,504. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $299.44 billion, a PE ratio of 13.25, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.37. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $24.96 and a 1-year high of $38.49. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $36.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.34.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.94%. The business had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.21 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 7th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.51%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the topic of several research reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Erste Group Bank upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $38.70.

About Bank of America

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.