Bank of America Corporation $BAC Stake Raised by Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH

Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 6.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 6,093,838 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 345,664 shares during the period. Bank of America accounts for about 1.6% of Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $331,688,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. B.A. Schrock Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $1,389,000. Nolet Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 13.3% in the third quarter. Nolet Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $513,000 after acquiring an additional 1,103 shares during the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. grew its holdings in Bank of America by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 19,477 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,060,000 after acquiring an additional 2,476 shares during the period. Ashurst Perkins Coie Trust Co grew its holdings in Bank of America by 2,891.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ashurst Perkins Coie Trust Co now owns 30,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,656,000 after acquiring an additional 29,403 shares during the period. Finally, ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in Bank of America by 314.9% during the 3rd quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 283,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,445,000 after acquiring an additional 215,365 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Bank of America

Here are the key news stories impacting Bank of America this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Underlying banking activity remained healthy: net interest income increased 8% year over year to $16.4 billion, consumer banking revenue rose 4%, wealth-management revenue climbed 13%, average loans grew 6%, and deposits increased 2%. The bank also returned $8.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Bank of America Reports Third-Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: Some market commentary argued that the selloff could create a long-term buying opportunity, while options activity and a reported institutional purchase of long-dated BAC call options pointed to bullish interest among some investors. Unusual Long-Dated BAC Call Options
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Brian Moynihan said Bank of America is addressing regulatory requirements and expects elevated remediation and software-patching expenses to decline over time. The bank hired about 1,000 contractors to help fix software vulnerabilities identified through Anthropic’s Mythos testing. Bank of America Software-Patching Costs
• Negative Sentiment: Adjusted EPS was $1.08 versus the $1.10 consensus, while revenue of roughly $30.0 billion missed estimates near $30.6 billion. Reported net income fell 17% to $6.9 billion, or $0.91 per share, after the regulatory charge. Bank of America Earnings Miss
• Negative Sentiment: Regulators imposed approximately $1.21 billion in penalties over anti-money-laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, and sanctions-compliance failures, including failures to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions. The non-tax-deductible charge reduced quarterly earnings by about $0.17 per share and intensified concerns that compliance problems may persist. Bank of America Regulatory Penalties
• Negative Sentiment: Expenses rose faster than revenue, pushing the adjusted efficiency ratio to about 62% from 60%. Bond-trading revenue fell 17%, investment-banking and trading results disappointed, and provisions for credit losses reached $1.3 billion. Hotter-than-expected inflation and several shareholder-law-firm investigations added to the cautious backdrop.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Oppenheimer cut shares of Bank of America from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Bank of America from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. HSBC started coverage on Bank of America in a research report on Monday, September 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $65.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, TD Cowen started coverage on Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, October 8th. They set a “hold” rating and a $60.00 price objective for the company. Nineteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.22.

Bank of America Trading Down 4.7%

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $51.40 on Thursday. Bank of America Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.12 and a twelve month high of $65.22. The stock has a market cap of $359.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The company’s fifty day moving average is $59.51 and its 200-day moving average is $56.69.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.10 by ($0.02). Bank of America had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The firm had revenue of $29.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.06 EPS. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Bank of America Corporation will post 4.60 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.32 per share. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.36%.

Bank of America Profile

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is a diversified financial services company serving individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies and large corporations. Its principal businesses include consumer banking, wealth and investment management, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and sales and trading.

Through its banking and financial services businesses, the company offers deposit accounts, credit cards, mortgages, home equity products, consumer and business loans, payment services, treasury management, brokerage services and investment advice.