Berger Financial Group Inc Trims Stake in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Berger Financial Group Inc cut its position in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,211 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 254 shares during the quarter. Berger Financial Group Inc’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $672,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Deutsche Bank AG grew its position in Bank of America by 45.1% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,007,718,000 after purchasing an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Unisphere Establishment grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1,642.5% during the first quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,195,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $175,057,000 after buying an additional 3,954,250 shares during the last quarter. 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 position in shares of Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $152,098,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 62.9% in the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 8,904,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $421,564,000 after purchasing an additional 3,438,876 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. The trade was a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BAC has been the subject of several recent research reports. TD Cowen increased their price target on Bank of America from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. 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. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Phillip Securities lowered Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.38.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.3%

BAC stock opened at $50.63 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $49.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.30. Bank of America Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.06 and a 52 week high of $52.88. The company has a market cap of $374.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.03. The company 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 for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

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

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.