Cardinal Strategic Wealth Guidance Purchases New Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Cardinal Strategic Wealth Guidance bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 9,130 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $401,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after buying an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 2.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,499,000 after purchasing an additional 601,211 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 15,857,556 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $696,940,000 after purchasing an additional 285,117 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $46.65 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market cap of $357.91 billion, a PE ratio of 14.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.93. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $32.35 and a one year 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 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict 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 given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.