Merit Financial Group LLC Acquires 10,550 Shares of Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 205,654 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,550 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $10,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at about $5,091,641,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 124.8% in the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,619,837 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $833,771,000 after buying an additional 9,782,208 shares in the last quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V. purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $202,439,000. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 881.5% during the 2nd quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 4,210,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $199,236,000 after acquiring an additional 3,781,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Bank of America by 96.5% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 6,882,719 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $325,690,000 after acquiring an additional 3,379,335 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Bank of America from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Bank of America from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Dbs Bank upgraded Bank of America to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Argus boosted their price target on Bank of America from $58.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Twenty-two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $60.30.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.0%

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $52.53 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $383.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.28 and a beta of 1.29. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $54.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Bank of America Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.06 and a 1 year high of $57.55.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 14th. The financial services provider reported $0.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $4.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.73 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 16.23% and a return on equity of 11.07%. The company’s revenue was up 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 29.24%.

Bank of America Profile

Bank of America Corporation is a multinational financial services company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It provides a broad array of banking, investment, asset management and related financial and risk management products and services to individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses, large corporations, governments and institutional investors. The firm operates through consumer banking, global wealth and investment management, global banking and markets businesses, offering capabilities across lending, deposits, payments, advisory and capital markets.

Its consumer-facing offerings include checking and savings accounts, mortgages, home equity lending, auto loans, credit cards and small business banking, supported by a nationwide branch network and digital channels.