MWA Asset Management Boosts Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

MWA Asset Management grew its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 44,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 469 shares during the quarter. Bank of America accounts for approximately 1.2% of MWA Asset Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. MWA Asset Management’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Quent Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 29,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,129,000 after buying an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 15.4% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 82,569 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,131,000 after acquiring an additional 11,010 shares during the period. Wellington Wealth Strategies LLC. purchased a new position in Bank of America in the first quarter valued at about $305,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 15.8% during the 1st quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 165,748 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,285,000 after acquiring an additional 22,595 shares during the period. Finally, Cadence Bank increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Cadence Bank now owns 92,994 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,526,000 after purchasing an additional 815 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 2,305,415 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total value of $90,533,647.05. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 812,041,811 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,888,881,917.97. The trade was a 0.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC 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 value of $3,661,600.00. Following 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 48.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 102,848,970 shares of company stock worth $4,145,103,288 in the last 90 days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on BAC. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.26.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE BAC opened at $46.41 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.51. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $29.32 and a twelve month high of $47.02. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $356.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.88, a PEG ratio of 1.58 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.82%.

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.