Probity Advisors Inc. Grows Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Probity Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 5.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,631 shares during the period. Probity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,474,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,417,407 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,521,218,000 after purchasing an additional 803,570 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,007,718,000 after purchasing an additional 14,960,086 shares in the last quarter. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 39,233,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,637,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,413,313 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 31,956,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,333,351,000 after purchasing an additional 188,638 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.4% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 12,970,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $541,250,000 after purchasing an additional 300,944 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 $52.02 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $385.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.17, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day moving average is $50.23 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.00. Bank of America Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.06 and a 1-year high of $52.88.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $28.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.05 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.70% and a return on equity of 10.76%. Bank of America’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.81 EPS. Analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business 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 was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.52%.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total value of $6,762,177.87. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $66.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Baird R W lowered shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.29.

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.