Vest Financial LLC Has $22.36 Million Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Vest Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 11.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 562,249 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,426 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $22,361,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Lansing Street Advisors increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.0% during the second quarter. Lansing Street Advisors now owns 23,066 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $917,000 after buying an additional 456 shares in the last quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth approximately $1,668,000. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% during the second quarter. HHM Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,314 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $649,000 after buying an additional 284 shares in the last quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.4% during the second quarter. Evernest Financial Advisors LLC now owns 17,306 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $688,000 after buying an additional 412 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Biltmore Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% during the second quarter. Biltmore Family Office LLC now owns 40,414 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,607,000 after buying an additional 423 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BAC shares. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Cfra reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised shares of 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 research note on Tuesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $39.00 on Thursday. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $24.96 and a 12 month high of $44.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.64. The firm has a market cap of $304.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.49, a PEG ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.33.

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 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 firm had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. 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 yield of 2.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 35.99%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total transaction of $530,145,635.91. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 Bank of America 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total transaction of $530,145,635.91. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383. 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.