Abel Hall LLC Buys 2,839 Shares of Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Abel Hall LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 42.2% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,839 shares during the quarter. Abel Hall LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $453,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Boston Common Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Boston Common Asset Management LLC now owns 259,680 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $12,288,000 after acquiring an additional 24,740 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. raised its holdings in Bank of America by 121.0% during the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 62,041 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 33,963 shares during the period. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC now owns 6,476 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $306,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares during the period. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Bank of America during the 1st quarter valued at $998,000. Finally, Alpha Cubed Investments LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 37.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 17,619 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $50.22 on Wednesday. Bank of America Corporation has a 52-week low of $33.06 and a 52-week high of $52.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $49.46 and a 200 day moving average of $45.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $371.95 billion, a PE ratio of 14.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $26.79 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

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 given a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 5th. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.75%.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Baird R W lowered shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $66.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Saturday, September 27th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $57.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twenty analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $53.93.

Bank of America 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.