Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.26

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 23rd, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.26 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, June 27th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%.

Bank of America has raised its dividend by an average of 8.6% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Bank of America has a dividend payout ratio of 24.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Bank of America to earn $4.36 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 23.9%.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.49 on Wednesday, hitting $38.81. The stock had a trading volume of 54,067,433 shares, compared to its average volume of 46,023,629. Bank of America has a 12-month low of $33.06 and a 12-month high of $48.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The business has a 50 day moving average of $40.93 and a 200 day moving average of $43.59. The stock has a market cap of $295.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.24.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.10. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The firm had revenue of $27.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.83 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BAC shares. Phillip Securities raised shares of Bank of America from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Bank of America from $51.00 to $48.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Cfra Research upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America to $47.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $45.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Baird R W raised Bank of America from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $47.43.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Bank of America

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Bank of America stock. Brighton Jones LLC increased its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) by 30.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 108,872 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 25,143 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC's holdings in Bank of America were worth $4,785,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company's stock.

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.

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