GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. Acquires 1,200 Shares of Bank of America Corporation $BAC

GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 6.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 20,140 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. GW Henssler & Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $953,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in Bank of America by 45.1% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,007,718,000 after purchasing an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Unisphere Establishment raised its position in Bank of America by 1,642.5% in the first quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,195,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $175,057,000 after purchasing an additional 3,954,250 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at about $164,623,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new position in Bank of America in the first quarter valued at about $152,098,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its position in Bank of America by 62.9% in the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 8,904,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $421,564,000 after purchasing an additional 3,438,876 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Trading Down 2.4%

NYSE BAC opened at $48.62 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.52. Bank of America Corporation has a one year low of $33.06 and a one year high of $52.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $360.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.33. 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 (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.79 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.83 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. This trade represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on BAC. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 30th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Robert W. Baird restated a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets raised their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.64.

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.