Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 12.5% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 5,641 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 628 shares during the period. Blue Zone Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $267,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 30.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 108,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,785,000 after buying an additional 25,143 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 8.2% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 111,527 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,654,000 after buying an additional 8,435 shares during the last quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 43.4% during the 1st quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,581 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $859,000 after buying an additional 6,226 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 989,233 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $41,281,000 after buying an additional 18,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verity & Verity LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 4.8% during the 1st quarter. Verity & Verity LLC now owns 24,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,025,000 after buying an additional 1,116 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $48.62 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $360.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.33. The company’s fifty day moving average is $49.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $45.50. Bank of America Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.06 and a 1 year 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 (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 company had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

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

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 paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling 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 shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.64.

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.