Gryphon Financial Partners LLC Raises Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Gryphon Financial Partners LLC grew its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 31.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,438 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,668 shares during the period. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $614,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Van Hulzen Asset Management LLC now owns 12,729 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $506,000 after acquiring an additional 1,101 shares during the period. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 62.4% in the 2nd quarter. FARMERS & MERCHANTS TRUST Co OF LONG BEACH now owns 18,148 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $722,000 after acquiring an additional 6,974 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 815,693 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $32,440,000 after acquiring an additional 4,399 shares during the period. Vision Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vision Capital Management Inc. now owns 58,262 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,317,000 after acquiring an additional 366 shares during the period. Finally, Beam Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter valued at approximately $743,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective (up previously from $46.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Cfra restated a “sell” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $39.30 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $40.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.64. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $24.96 and a 12-month high of $44.44. 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 stock has a market cap of $304.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.60, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.26 dividend. This is an increase 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 2.65%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 35.99%.

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

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,183,829 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.31, for a total transaction of $203,776,317.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 937,246,053 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,843,142,343.43. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, 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 transaction, the insider now owns 10,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383 in the last 90 days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.