Bath Savings Trust Co Makes New Investment in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Bath Savings Trust Co bought a new position in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 4,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $203,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Nova Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Bank of America by 75.2% in the second quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. now owns 529 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Vega Investment Solutions purchased a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $38,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the first quarter worth about $40,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on BAC. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $53.00 target price on Bank of America and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Bank of America from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. HSBC downgraded Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $47.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Monday, July 7th. Baird R W downgraded Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.61.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $51.36 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.79. Bank of America Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.06 and a 1 year high of $51.63. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $48.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $44.40. The company has a market cap of $380.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.02, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.34.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.03. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 14.81%.The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be given a $0.28 dividend. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.75%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total value of $6,762,177.87. Following the transaction, the insider owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.