Lavaca Capital LLC Invests $211,000 in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Lavaca Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 5,574 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 402.2% in the 1st quarter. Delos Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 683 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 547 shares during the last quarter. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America during the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Clearstead Trust LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1,489.3% in the 1st quarter. Clearstead Trust LLC now owns 890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 834 shares during the period. Finally, Criterion Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,264,601 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.20, for a total transaction of $216,901,561.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 961,646,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $39,619,844,658. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 49,545,245 shares of company stock worth $2,119,252,649. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on BAC. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $43.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Bank of America from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.92.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $0.57 during trading on Monday, hitting $41.10. 37,114,057 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,923,566. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $24.96 and a 12-month high of $44.44. The company has a market cap of $321.42 billion, a PE ratio of 14.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $40.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $37.33. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted 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 the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.25 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.22%.

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.