Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. Purchases 339 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 211,927 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 339 shares during the quarter. Bank of America makes up approximately 2.9% of Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $7,619,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Bank of America by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,502,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Bank of America by 3.2% in 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 last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,363,928,000 after purchasing an additional 2,935,040 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its position in Bank of America by 12.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,189,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,353,216,000 after purchasing an additional 4,338,679 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on BAC. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 19th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 target price (up from $39.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Monday, May 20th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.79.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $39.77 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $311.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.79. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $24.96 and a 52-week high of $40.34.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $25.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.49 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.94% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.94 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.22 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were issued a $0.24 dividend. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.41%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 7th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.22%.

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.