Bank of America Co. (BAC) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.26 on September 27th

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a dividend of 0.26 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, September 27th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Bank of America has raised its dividend payment by an average of 8.5% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Bank of America has a payout ratio of 28.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Bank of America to earn $3.64 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.6%.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE BAC opened at $40.71 on Wednesday. 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 current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $318.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.35. The company’s fifty day moving average is $40.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.43.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS 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 analyst estimates of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total value of $530,145,635.91. Following the sale, the insider now owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,824,063.60. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 998,961,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 99,609,567 shares of company stock worth $4,122,483,669 in the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cfra reiterated a “sell” rating and set a $39.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler Companies raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective (up from $46.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.22.

Bank of America declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Company 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.