Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Shares Up 0.5%

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shares traded up 0.5% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $39.34 and last traded at $39.22. 7,684,601 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 39,146,137 shares. The stock had previously closed at $39.03.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BAC shares. Cfra reissued a “sell” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler Companies raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective (up from $46.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.07.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.9 %

The business’s 50-day moving average is $40.21 and its 200 day moving average is $37.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $307.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.04. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 35.99%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total value of $530,145,635.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 56,549,666 shares of company stock worth $2,403,801,723. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BAC. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,502,000. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at $63,000. Wealth Alliance grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 20,973 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,604 shares during the period. HF Advisory Group LLC raised its stake in Bank of America by 33.2% in the 4th quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 12,436 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $419,000 after acquiring an additional 3,100 shares during the period. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 4,640,139 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $156,233,000 after purchasing an additional 57,179 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.