Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC Raises Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 26,992 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,878 shares during the quarter. Cassaday & Co Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,071,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after buying an additional 895,884 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in 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. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after buying an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 23.6% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $646,693,000 after buying an additional 3,109,197 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 3.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $611,692,000 after purchasing an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Phillip Securities raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $46.75 on Monday. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $358.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $29.22 and a twelve month high of $46.84.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.82%.

Bank of America announced that its board has authorized a stock 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 repurchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’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 value of $3,661,600.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 48.91 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total value of $369,952,591.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 102,848,970 shares of company stock worth $4,145,103,288 in the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.