First Washington CORP Grows Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

First Washington CORP raised its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 160,845 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,243 shares during the period. Bank of America comprises about 2.4% of First Washington CORP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. First Washington CORP’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $6,397,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brio Consultants LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth $227,000. Gilbert & Cook Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 17,388 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $585,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. Rollins Financial lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Rollins Financial now owns 441,919 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $14,879,000 after buying an additional 48,998 shares during the last quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 44.4% in the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 11,664 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $393,000 after acquiring an additional 3,585 shares during the period. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 19.7% during the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,765 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,610 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Cfra reiterated a “sell” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Tuesday, July 16th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Piper Sandler Companies upgraded Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock opened at $39.58 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $309.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $24.96 and a 1-year high of $44.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its 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. 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 analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 35.99%.

Bank of America declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 10,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Bank of America news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 10,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383. Corporate 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.