Bank of America Corporation $BAC Shares Acquired by Peoples Bank OH

Peoples Bank OH lifted its holdings in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 3.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 20,432 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 750 shares during the quarter. Peoples Bank OH’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $967,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.3% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,417,407 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,521,218,000 after acquiring an additional 803,570 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG increased 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 worth $2,007,718,000 after acquiring an additional 14,960,086 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 39,233,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,637,205,000 after acquiring an additional 1,413,313 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 31,956,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,333,351,000 after acquiring an additional 188,638 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.4% in the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 12,970,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $541,250,000 after acquiring an additional 300,944 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total value of $6,762,177.87. Following the sale, the insider owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at $10,180,656.99. This trade represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.38.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $50.63 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.26. Bank of America Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.06 and a 52-week high of $52.88. The firm has a market cap of $374.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

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

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.75%.

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.