Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) to Buyback $25.00 billion in Outstanding Stock

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 24th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of BAC stock opened at $41.67 on Friday. Bank of America has a 52-week low of $24.96 and a 52-week high of $44.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.44 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.22. The company has a market capitalization of $325.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.42, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.04. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Bank of America will post 3.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. This is a boost 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 presently 33.22%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on BAC. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 3rd. Piper Sandler raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total value of $559,278,840.51. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at $44,958,509,063.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 36,753,983 shares of company stock worth $1,588,489,324 over the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.