E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Buys 6,355 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 16.3% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,322 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,355 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,802,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Bank of America by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,437,936,000 after acquiring an additional 36,124,363 shares during the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its stake in Bank of America by 360.9% in the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,255,514,000 after acquiring an additional 29,198,846 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in Bank of America by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after acquiring an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its stake in Bank of America by 959.6% in the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 9,327,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $370,948,000 after acquiring an additional 8,447,091 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in Bank of America in the first quarter valued at approximately $261,923,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price target (up from $46.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Piper Sandler Companies raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.22.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of BAC stock opened at $39.58 on Wednesday. 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 Co. has a 1 year low of $24.96 and a 1 year high of $44.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $40.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $38.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $309.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.70, a PEG ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.04. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The firm had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.22 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The company’s revenue was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 35.99%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has approved 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 reacquire up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction on Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total value of $530,145,635.91. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total transaction of $530,145,635.91. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,085,191,337.27. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 114,391,986 shares of company stock worth $4,719,796,383. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.