AE Wealth Management LLC Acquires 78,578 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

AE Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 15.3% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 592,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 78,578 shares during the quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $23,567,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the period. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 839.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the period. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth approximately $30,000. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Trading Up 3.2 %

Shares of BAC opened at $40.87 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $24.96 and a twelve month high of $44.44. The company has a market cap of $319.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.82.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program 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 repurchase up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total value of $559,278,840.51. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at $44,958,509,063.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total value of $559,278,840.51. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at $44,958,509,063.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at $402,577.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 129,780,724 shares of company stock valued at $5,342,589,705. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on BAC. Evercore ISI upped 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 report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

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.