Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Price Target Cut to $47.00

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) had its price objective dropped by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $49.00 to $47.00 in a report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the financial services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 19.81% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price 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. Piper Sandler raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $48.00 price target (up previously from $46.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.12.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $39.23 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $306.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.37 and a beta of 1.33. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $39.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.09. Bank of America has a twelve month low of $24.96 and a twelve month high of $44.44. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Bank of America will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to repurchase up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 3,915,126 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.52, for a total value of $154,725,779.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 802,668,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,721,473,347.20. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 3,915,126 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.52, for a total transaction of $154,725,779.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 802,668,860 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,721,473,347.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 140,942,405 shares of company stock worth $5,785,202,516 in the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Bank of America

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in 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 worth $24,437,936,000 after buying an additional 36,124,363 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in 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 worth $1,255,514,000 after buying an additional 29,198,846 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in 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 worth $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Bank of America by 959.6% during the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 9,327,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $370,948,000 after buying an additional 8,447,091 shares during the period. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Bank of America during the first quarter worth $261,923,000. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

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.