Lynx Investment Advisory Takes $90,000 Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Lynx Investment Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 2,253 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $90,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 5.9% in the 1st 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bank of America in the 4th quarter worth about $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Bank of America by 10.5% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,408,520,000 after buying an additional 1,315,056 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 7.8% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.25 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $36.90. 40,601,435 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 39,690,047. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $40.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. 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 $286.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly 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. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.56% and a net margin of 13.28%. The company had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.82%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 33.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 6,993,520 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total value of $284,146,717.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 948,077,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,520,401,217.15. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders have sold 56,538,765 shares of company stock valued at $2,403,399,367. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on BAC. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Cfra restated a “sell” rating and set a $39.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Tuesday, July 16th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted 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 report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.07.

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.