Empower Advisory Group LLC Has $142.44 Million Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,589,752 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 27,994 shares during the quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $142,441,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 402.2% during the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 547 shares in the last quarter. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 839.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on BAC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.69.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.4 %

Bank of America stock opened at $45.88 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $41.00 and a 200-day moving average of $40.13. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $46.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market cap of $352.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.32.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. Bank of America’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.82%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,183,829 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.31, for a total transaction of $203,776,317.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 937,246,053 shares in the company, valued at $36,843,142,343.43. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,067,817 shares of company stock worth $4,548,518,070 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.