StoneX Group Inc. Acquires 1,602 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

StoneX Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 24,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,602 shares during the quarter. StoneX Group Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $959,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake 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 acquiring an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Bank of America by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $646,693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,109,197 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in Bank of America by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after purchasing an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 13,502,778 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $535,790,000 after purchasing an additional 1,783,631 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.2 %

BAC stock opened at $47.00 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $360.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $42.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.69. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.32 and a fifty-two week high of $47.22.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.82%.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total value of $3,661,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 48.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 7,081,075 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.95, for a total transaction of $282,888,946.25. Following the sale, the insider now owns 896,719,301 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $35,823,936,074.95. This represents a 0.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 85,119,690 shares of company stock valued at $3,438,777,236 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the subject of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays raised their price objective on Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.26.

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.