Bank of America Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:BAC)

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 580,384 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 286% compared to the average volume of 150,509 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.3% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 148,176,755 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,982,863,000 after acquiring an additional 403,652 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Bank of America by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 144,371,118 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $7,448,816,000 after purchasing an additional 14,275,810 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America in the 2nd quarter valued at about $5,091,641,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 52,677,988 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,717,657,000 after purchasing an additional 1,272,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,007,718,000 after purchasing an additional 14,960,086 shares during 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 equities research analysts recently commented on BAC shares. Wolfe Research raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 price target (up from $57.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Seaport Global Securities increased their price objective on Bank of America from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 7th. Twenty-three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.77.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of BAC stock opened at $53.94 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $393.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.70 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. Bank of America has a fifty-two week low of $33.06 and a fifty-two week high of $54.83. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $52.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $49.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.13. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.70% and a return on equity of 10.76%. The business had revenue of $5.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.81 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Bank of America will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 5th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.52%.

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.