Chung Wu Investment Group LLC Buys Shares of 8,050 Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Chung Wu Investment Group LLC bought a new stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 8,050 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $354,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Swedbank AB grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,042,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $279,441,000 after purchasing an additional 50,849 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 120.2% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $814,000 after purchasing an additional 10,497 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,047,000. United Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 95.8% during the 3rd quarter. United Advisor Group LLC now owns 19,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $781,000 after buying an additional 9,631 shares during the period. Finally, HF Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 1,066 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on BAC. UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:BAC opened at $42.27 on Thursday. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $34.15 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The stock has a market cap of $321.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $45.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $43.69.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.30%.

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.