Meridian Wealth Partners LLC Acquires 595 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Meridian Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 8,303 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 595 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $330,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,437,936,000 after buying an additional 36,124,363 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,363,928,000 after buying an additional 2,935,040 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,530,241,000 after buying an additional 165,070 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 17.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 37,654,279 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,267,820,000 after buying an additional 5,488,790 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 1,721,366 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.57, for a total transaction of $68,114,452.62. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 861,175,131 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,076,699,933.67. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 1,721,366 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.57, for a total value of $68,114,452.62. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 861,175,131 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,076,699,933.67. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total value of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler Companies upgraded shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.22.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $39.58 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $309.53 billion, a PE ratio of 13.70, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 two-hundred 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

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