Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch to Launch Online Brokerage (BAC)

in bank of america dividend Gold Gold Bullion prices shares by admin — June 18, 2010 5:37 am | no comments

Financial services giant Bank of America Corporation ( BAC ) said Friday that its Merrill Lynch unit will launch a discount online brokerage on Monday, which will compete with the likes of E-Trade and TD Ameritrade. Instead of Merrill’s traditional full-service advisory services, this discount brokerage caters to younger investors with less assets to manage. Bank of America will transfer its online brokerage clients to the new service, which will pad its client base by about 500,000 customers from the start. “The younger generation wants to try it on their own first, and see how they do. If they start a relationship with Merrill at that early period, then we’re going to maintain that, and they eventually will become full-service clients of ours,” said Dean Athanasia, head of banking and the direct investment division for Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management. Bank of America shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Friday. The Bottom Line Shares of BAC have a dividend yield of .25%, based on last night’s closing stock price of $15.82. The stock has technical support in the $13-$14 price area. If the shares can firm up, we see overhead resistance around the $17-$18 price levels. We would remain on the sidelines for now. Bank of America Corporation ( BAC ) is not recommended at this time, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars. Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .