MBA Advisors LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

MBA Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 6.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,542 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 538 shares during the quarter. MBA Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 121.0% during the first quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 62,041 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,589,000 after buying an additional 33,963 shares during the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 696,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,061,000 after purchasing an additional 50,296 shares in the last quarter. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $998,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 37.2% in the 1st quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 65,038 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,714,000 after purchasing an additional 17,619 shares in the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 170.5% in the 1st quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 238,473 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,951,000 after purchasing an additional 150,299 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on BAC. HSBC lowered Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $51.00 in a report on Monday, July 7th. Baird R W lowered Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Citigroup boosted their price target on Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 19th. Phillip Securities lowered Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Sixteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.82.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of BAC opened at $52.36 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $49.16 and a two-hundred day moving average of $45.05. 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 company has a market capitalization of $387.83 billion, a PE ratio of 15.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.34. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. The company had revenue of ($22,273.00) million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 14.81%.Bank of America’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.83 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a $0.28 dividend. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.1%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 32.75%.

Bank of America announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that permits the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to purchase up to 11.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s 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 completion of 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.