Mathes Company Inc. Has $1.47 Million Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Mathes Company Inc. reduced its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 36,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 3,000 shares during the period. Mathes Company Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,468,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,437,936,000 after buying an additional 36,124,363 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,363,928,000 after buying an additional 2,935,040 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,530,241,000 after buying an additional 165,070 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 37,654,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,267,820,000 after buying an additional 5,488,790 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays increased their price target on Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Evercore ISI increased their price target on Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Bank of America from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.22.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.2 %

BAC stock opened at $39.64 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.81. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $44.44. The company has a market capitalization of $309.96 billion, a PE ratio of 13.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS 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 period in the prior year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. Bank of America’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

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 paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This is an increase 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%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 35.99%.

Bank of America declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 1,721,366 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.57, for a total value of $68,114,452.62. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 861,175,131 shares in the company, valued at $34,076,699,933.67. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the company’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 $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 1,721,366 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.57, for a total transaction of $68,114,452.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 861,175,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,076,699,933.67. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383. Corporate 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.