Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 808 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 16,072 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 808 shares during the quarter. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $638,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Bank of America by 5.9% during 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 during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after acquiring an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Bank of America by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,530,241,000 after acquiring an additional 165,070 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 23.6% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $646,693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,109,197 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Bank of America by 3.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after purchasing an additional 569,385 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bank of America Trading Down 1.1 %

NYSE BAC traded down $0.51 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $44.90. 7,724,602 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,510,301. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $27.34 and a one year high of $45.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.96. The stock has a market cap of $344.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.32.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.26 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 2,305,415 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total transaction of $90,533,647.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 812,041,811 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,888,881,917.97. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was 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 directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 2,305,415 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total transaction of $90,533,647.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 812,041,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,888,881,917.97. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 113,067,817 shares of company stock valued at $4,548,518,070 over the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BAC. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. 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 report on Thursday, July 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.97.

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.