Bank of America Corporation $BAC Shares Sold by Stephens Consulting LLC

Stephens Consulting LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 51.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 997 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,069 shares during the quarter. Stephens Consulting LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $47,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nova Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 75.2% during 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 in the last quarter. RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth approximately $28,000. Acima Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, HighMark Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 233.6% during the first quarter. HighMark Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 743 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Price Performance

BAC stock opened at $48.62 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $360.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.22, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Corporation has a twelve month low of $33.06 and a twelve month high of $52.88. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.61 and a 200-day simple moving average of $45.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

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

Bank of America announced 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 repurchase up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. HSBC upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Seaport Global Securities upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Daiwa Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Twenty-one equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.64.

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.