Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Short Interest Update

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 69,660,000 shares, a growth of 11.2% from the August 15th total of 62,670,000 shares. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 40,020,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at $43,085,191,337.27. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 998,961,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock valued at $4,719,796,383 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 402.2% in the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 646 shares in the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $39.58. 9,861,975 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 39,066,762. The stock has a market cap of $309.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.66, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.80. Bank of America has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $44.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. Bank of America’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.99%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Cfra restated a “sell” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

About Bank of America

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.