Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Purchased by AustralianSuper Pty Ltd

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 36.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 213,614 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,069 shares during the quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $8,476,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Bank of America by 5.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 36,124,363 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after purchasing an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Bank of America by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,530,241,000 after purchasing an additional 165,070 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 21,465,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $813,983,000 after buying an additional 954,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 23.6% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $646,693,000 after buying an additional 3,109,197 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target 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. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies upgraded Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.69.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of BAC traded down $0.38 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $41.93. The stock had a trading volume of 6,927,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,344,473. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.73. The firm has a market cap of $325.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $25.72 and a fifty-two week high of $44.44.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.26 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 37.82%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other Bank of America news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at $402,577.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 11,422,560 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.78, for a total value of $465,811,996.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 835,908,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,088,345,979.30. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at $402,577.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 113,078,718 shares of company stock worth $4,548,920,425 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.