DAVENPORT & Co LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

DAVENPORT & Co LLC cut its holdings in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 383,186 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 9,357 shares during the quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $18,132,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 4.4% during the second quarter. Wealth Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 5,126 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $243,000 after purchasing an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Centurion Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Centurion Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,862 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $467,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in Bank of America by 75.2% during the 2nd quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. now owns 529 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.9% during the first quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 12,567 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $524,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rainier Family Wealth Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.9% in the second quarter. Rainier Family Wealth Inc. now owns 6,396 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 239 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $50.36 on Tuesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $49.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.35. Bank of America Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.06 and a 1-year high of $52.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $373.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $0.28 dividend. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.75%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on BAC. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Bank of America from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, September 19th. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.38.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.