Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Trading Down 1.1% on Analyst Downgrade

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) dropped 1.1% during trading on Tuesday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $49.00 to $47.00. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Bank of America traded as low as $38.94 and last traded at $39.24. Approximately 6,940,153 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average daily volume of 39,132,074 shares. The stock had previously closed at $39.68.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on BAC. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.12.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 3,915,126 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.52, for a total value of $154,725,779.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 802,668,860 shares in the company, valued at $31,721,473,347.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 140,942,405 shares of company stock valued at $5,785,202,516 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 402.2% during 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 in the last quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in 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. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Down 1.1 %

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 has a market capitalization of $306.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $39.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $39.07.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly 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. 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 last year, the company posted $0.88 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.65%. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 35.99%.

Bank of America announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.