Rather & Kittrell Inc. Acquires 588 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Rather & Kittrell Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 26,289 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 588 shares during the period. Rather & Kittrell Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,043,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. McAdam LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 11,434 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Integrity Financial Corp WA lifted its stake in Bank of America by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Integrity Financial Corp WA now owns 14,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $590,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Bank of America by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $805,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. lifted its stake in Bank of America by 15.1% in the 2nd quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. now owns 1,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SNS Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. SNS Financial Group LLC now owns 7,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of BAC opened at $45.15 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $40.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $346.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.42, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $27.34 and a 1-year high of $45.55.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.30%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.82%.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,183,829 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $36,843,142,343.43. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,183,829 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $36,843,142,343.43. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was 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 directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 113,067,817 shares of company stock valued at $4,548,518,070 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Cfra restated a “sell” rating and set a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised 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 equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.69.

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.