Greenwood Gearhart Inc. Lowers Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Greenwood Gearhart Inc. decreased its position in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 6.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,989 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 719 shares during the period. Greenwood Gearhart Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings 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 worth $2,521,218,000 after buying an additional 803,570 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 45.1% during 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 buying an additional 14,960,086 shares during the period. Amundi lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 3.7% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 39,233,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,637,205,000 after buying an additional 1,413,313 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 0.6% during 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 buying an additional 188,638 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 2.4% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 12,970,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $541,250,000 after buying an additional 300,944 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on Bank of America from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Bank of America from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Bank of America from $56.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. HSBC increased their price objective on Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.64.

Bank of America Price Performance

NYSE BAC opened at $48.62 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $49.61 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.50. Bank of America Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.06 and a 1 year high of $52.88. The company has a market cap of $360.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.22, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 14.81%.The firm had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. This is an increase 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 of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 repurchase up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This trade represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

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.