6,101 Shares in Bank of America Corporation $BAC Acquired by CenterStar Asset Management LLC

CenterStar Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 6,101 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $289,000.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,007,718,000 after buying an additional 14,960,086 shares in the last quarter. Unisphere Establishment boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 1,642.5% during the 1st quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,195,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $175,057,000 after acquiring an additional 3,954,250 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America in the 2nd quarter valued at about $164,623,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the first quarter worth about $152,098,000. Finally, Azora Capital LP lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 958.9% during the first quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 3,344,363 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $139,560,000 after purchasing an additional 3,028,530 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BAC. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Hsbc Global Res lowered Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, HSBC boosted their target price on Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.88.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total value of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $50.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $373.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.06 and a 52-week high of $52.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $49.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.19.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The company’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. Research analysts predict that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 32.75%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that permits the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 11.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Company 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.