Abacus Wealth Partners LLC Takes $217,000 Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Abacus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,473 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,437,936,000 after purchasing an additional 36,124,363 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 360.9% during the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,255,514,000 after purchasing an additional 29,198,846 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in 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 worth $3,502,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares in the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 959.6% during the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 9,327,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $370,948,000 after purchasing an additional 8,447,091 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the 1st quarter worth about $261,923,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total value of $559,278,840.51. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,958,509,063.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total value of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total value of $559,278,840.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,020,161,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,958,509,063.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 147,650,481 shares of company stock worth $6,050,547,676. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday. Cfra restated a “sell” rating and issued a $39.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Bank of America from $49.00 to $47.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Bank of America from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. 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 given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.27.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of BAC stock opened at $39.24 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $306.87 billion, a PE ratio of 13.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $24.96 and a 1-year high of $44.44. The business has a 50-day moving average of $39.39 and a 200 day moving average of $39.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.04. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.65%. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.99%.

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.