GAMMA Investing LLC Boosts Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 32.1% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 82,378 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 20,019 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,276,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of BAC. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth $3,734,407,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,437,936,000 after purchasing an additional 36,124,363 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 360.9% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,255,514,000 after purchasing an additional 29,198,846 shares in the last quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 1,071.8% during the fourth quarter. Alphinity Investment Management Pty Ltd now owns 14,082,264 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $474,150,000 after purchasing an additional 12,880,492 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $1.92 during trading on Friday, reaching $37.58. 76,727,990 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,436,524. The firm has a market capitalization of $291.61 billion, a PE ratio of 13.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.35. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.53. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $24.96 and a 12-month high of $44.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.88 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to repurchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are 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 issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.22%.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total transaction of $530,145,635.91. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,085,191,337.27. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 56,538,765 shares of company stock valued at $2,403,399,367 over the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BAC. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Wolfe Research upgraded Bank of America from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. Piper Sandler Companies raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.50 to $40.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.07.

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.