Bank of America Corp DE Has $88.79 Million Stock Position in Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS)

Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Barclays PLC (NYSE:BCS) by 485.0% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 6,680,869 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,538,912 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in Barclays were worth $88,789,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV acquired a new position in shares of Barclays during the 4th quarter worth about $3,915,000. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group grew its position in shares of Barclays by 41.1% during the 4th quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 37,031 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $492,000 after buying an additional 10,788 shares during the period. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Barclays during the 4th quarter worth about $4,044,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Barclays by 62.3% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 381,369 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,068,000 after buying an additional 146,406 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Barclays by 20.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,059,544 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $80,531,000 after buying an additional 1,029,401 shares during the period. 3.39% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BCS has been the subject of several analyst reports. BNP Paribas upgraded Barclays from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com lowered Barclays from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th.

Barclays Trading Up 1.0%

NYSE:BCS opened at $16.52 on Monday. Barclays PLC has a fifty-two week low of $10.17 and a fifty-two week high of $16.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.33, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.18 billion, a PE ratio of 8.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.34.

Barclays (NYSE:BCS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 30th. The financial services provider reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.61 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $10.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.37 billion. Barclays had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 20.81%. Sell-side analysts expect that Barclays PLC will post 2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barclays Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a $0.2737 dividend. This is a boost from Barclays’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a yield of 2.7%. Barclays’s payout ratio is presently 27.92%.

About Barclays

Barclays PLC provides various financial services in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Americas, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The company operates through Barclays UK and Barclays International division segments. It offers financial services, such as retail banking, credit cards, wholesale banking, investment banking, wealth management, and investment management services.