Cornerstone Advisors LLC Sells 24,700 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Cornerstone Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 458,200 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 24,700 shares during the quarter. Cornerstone Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $18,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its position in Bank of America by 622.2% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 709,166 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $28,204,000 after purchasing an additional 610,977 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 20.9% during the 2nd quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC now owns 17,576 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $699,000 after acquiring an additional 3,044 shares in the last quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 136.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sierra Summit Advisors LLC now owns 20,314 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $808,000 after purchasing an additional 11,714 shares during the period. Black Diamond Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Black Diamond Financial LLC now owns 23,032 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,397 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rathbones Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% during the second quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 1,553,400 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $61,779,000 after purchasing an additional 41,872 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler Companies raised Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.22.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of BAC stock opened at $38.65 on Monday. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $44.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $299.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.37, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $40.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $38.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.88 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.69%. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

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

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total transaction of $559,278,840.51. Following the completion of 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 document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $402,355.91. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383. 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.