Empirical Asset Management LLC Grows Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Empirical Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) by 47.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,096 shares of the financial services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 14,576 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC's holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,982,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Traveka Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Traveka Wealth LLC now owns 8,685 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.6% in the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 37,393 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $1,484,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% during the third quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 20,863 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $828,000 after acquiring an additional 231 shares during the period. Integrity Financial Corp WA boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.6% in the third quarter. Integrity Financial Corp WA now owns 14,875 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $590,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the period. Finally, Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Bank of America by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 12,231 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $485,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC traded down $0.10 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $46.54. The company had a trading volume of 44,307,437 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,125,426. The company has a market capitalization of $357.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.93, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $31.40 and a 12-month high of $48.08. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.79 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.70 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a "neutral" rating to an "accumulate" rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday. HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $48.58.

Bank of America 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.