Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Shares Up 0.8%

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) shares shot up 0.8% on Monday . The company traded as high as $39.21 and last traded at $38.97. 5,377,759 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 39,176,559 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.65.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BAC. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler Companies upgraded 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 report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $309.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $40.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.80. 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 (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 declared 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. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total transaction of $559,278,840.51. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $44,958,509,063.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 114,391,986 shares of company stock valued at $4,719,796,383 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barometer Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter valued at about $2,175,000. IMA Wealth Inc. acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,453,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 149.9% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 21,247 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $715,000 after acquiring an additional 12,744 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,363,928,000 after acquiring an additional 2,935,040 shares during the period. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,601,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.