Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Purchased by Arizona State Retirement System

Arizona State Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,058,789 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,912 shares during the quarter. Bank of America comprises 0.5% of Arizona State Retirement System’s portfolio, making the stock its 25th largest position. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $81,878,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BAC. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,734,407,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Bank of America by 5.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,437,936,000 after buying an additional 36,124,363 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its holdings in Bank of America by 360.9% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,255,514,000 after buying an additional 29,198,846 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in Bank of America by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its holdings in Bank of America by 959.6% in the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 9,327,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $370,948,000 after buying an additional 8,447,091 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BAC. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler Companies raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $39.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $312.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.35. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $40.32 and its 200-day moving average is $38.46. Bank of America Co. has a 52-week low of $24.96 and a 52-week high of $44.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.61%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.99%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,031,014 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.28, for a total transaction of $202,649,243.92. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 863,977,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,801,017,687.72. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Bank of America news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at $3,824,063.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,031,014 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.28, for a total transaction of $202,649,243.92. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 863,977,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,801,017,687.72. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 112,670,620 shares of company stock valued at $4,651,681,930 over the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.