AE Wealth Management LLC Acquires 78,578 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

AE Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 15.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 592,582 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 78,578 shares during the period. AE Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $23,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barometer Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth about $2,175,000. IMA Wealth Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,453,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 149.9% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Financial Group Inc. now owns 21,247 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $715,000 after buying an additional 12,744 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% in the 4th quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,363,928,000 after buying an additional 2,935,040 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,601,000. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Piper Sandler raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.22.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $40.87 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $24.96 and a 12 month high of $44.44. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $40.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $38.82. The stock has a market cap of $319.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.14, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 firm had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were 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 directly 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 accessible through the SEC website. In related news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total transaction of $559,278,840.51. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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. Insiders sold a total of 129,780,724 shares of company stock worth $5,342,589,705 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.