Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. Sells 55,124 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. lowered its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 77.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 16,481 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 55,124 shares during the quarter. Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $655,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 402.2% during the first quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 547 shares during the period. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at about $28,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 839.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the first quarter valued at about $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at $44,958,509,063.91. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 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 completion of the transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,958,509,063.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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 report on Thursday, July 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. 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 note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies upgraded 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 research note on Tuesday, July 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.3 %

NYSE BAC opened at $38.65 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $40.14 and a 200 day moving average of $38.67. The company has a market capitalization of $299.87 billion, a PE ratio of 13.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $24.96 and a 1 year high of $44.44.

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 firm had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. The company’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to purchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.69%. 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 payout ratio is 35.99%.

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.