Rooted Wealth Advisors Inc. Buys Shares of 5,131 Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Rooted Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 5,131 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lewis Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 80.0% during the 2nd quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC now owns 13,009 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 5,783 shares during the last quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Edge Wealth Management LLC now owns 22,329 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 194,509 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,204,000 after buying an additional 18,526 shares during the period. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 15.6% during the 2nd quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 1,397,521 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $66,131,000 after buying an additional 188,446 shares during the period. Finally, Palacios Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 365.7% during the 2nd quarter. Palacios Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after buying an additional 19,977 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BAC. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. HSBC cut Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the company from $47.00 to $51.00 in a report on Monday, July 7th. Phillip Securities cut Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Wall Street Zen raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, September 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Bank of America from $46.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 10th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.3%

BAC opened at $52.27 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $48.55 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $44.55. Bank of America Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.06 and a 52 week high of $52.66. The company has a market capitalization of $387.16 billion, a PE ratio of 15.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.75%.

Bank of America announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to purchase up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.