Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 912 shares during the quarter. Etesian Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,834,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Bank of America by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 60,417,407 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,521,218,000 after acquiring an additional 803,570 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,007,718,000 after purchasing an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 39,233,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,637,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,413,313 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Bank of America by 0.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 31,956,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,333,351,000 after acquiring an additional 188,638 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its stake in Bank of America by 2.4% in the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 12,970,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $541,250,000 after acquiring an additional 300,944 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Daiwa Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Seaport Global Securities increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.11.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at $10,180,656.99. The trade was a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of BAC stock opened at $49.71 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $49.55 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $368.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.54, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $33.06 and a fifty-two week high of $52.88.

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 32.75%.

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

Bank of America Company 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.