Keynote Financial Services LLC Invests $944,000 in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Keynote Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 24,899 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $944,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. American Trust boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 38.5% in the 1st quarter. American Trust now owns 10,059 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $381,000 after buying an additional 2,798 shares in the last quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% during the first quarter. Clear Rock Advisors LLC now owns 81,998 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,109,000 after purchasing an additional 1,425 shares during the last quarter. Peninsula Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the first quarter worth about $377,000. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,148,000. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 16,731 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $634,000 after buying an additional 439 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total transaction of $559,278,840.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,958,509,063.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In the last three months, insiders sold 56,538,765 shares of company stock worth $2,403,399,367. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.07.

Bank of America Price Performance

BAC traded down $1.92 on Friday, hitting $37.58. 76,727,990 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,436,524. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.49 and its 200 day moving average is $37.49. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $44.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.04. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. The company had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.77%. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.22%.

About Bank of America

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.