Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Shares Up 1.1% – Should You Buy?

Vaseline1 week ago

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Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) was up 1.1% during mid-day trading on Friday. The company traded as high as $40.25 and last traded at $39.68. About 10,235,671 shares were traded during trading, down 74% from the average daily volume of 38,931,676 shares. Shares previously closed at $39.25.

Analyst upgrades and downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on BAC shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on 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. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th . Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.27, according to MarketBeat .

Read BAC’s latest research report

Bank of America Price Performance

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The company has a market cap of $313.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $39.39, and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.10. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80, and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC – Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 company had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue rose 0.7% year over year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America has increased its dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a $0.26 dividend. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a dividend of $1.04 on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 6. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

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

Insider buying and selling

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 1,722,523 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.40, for a total transaction of $67,867,406.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 794,120,913 shares in the company, valued at $31,288,363,972.20. The transaction represented a decrease of 0.00 % in the stock holding. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 1,722,523 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.40, for a total value of $67,867,406.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 794,120,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,288,363,972.20. This represents a 0.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC’s website. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 0.00% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 147,650,481 shares of company stock worth $6,050,547,676 in the last ninety days. 0.29% of shares are currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional investors are weighing in on Bank of America

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,437,936,000 after buying an additional 36,124,363 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Bank of America by 1.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after buying an additional 895,884 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 0.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,530,241,000 after buying an additional 165,070 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 37,654,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,267,820,000 after buying an additional 5,488,790 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the shares are held by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Bank of America Company Profile

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Bank of America Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides banking and financial products and services to individual consumers, small and medium-sized 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.