Traynor Capital Management Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Traynor Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 16.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 18,619 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,594 shares during the quarter. Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $739,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,437,936,000 after purchasing an additional 36,124,363 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,347,000 after purchasing an additional 895,884 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,530,241,000 after purchasing an additional 165,070 shares in the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 21,465,791 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $813,983,000 after purchasing an additional 954,885 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 23.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.8 %

BAC opened at $42.63 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.30 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.66. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $25.28 and a twelve month high of $44.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $330.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.50, a PEG ratio of 1.42 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The firm 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 company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback 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 usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.44%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 6,993,520 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total value of $284,146,717.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 948,077,805 shares in the company, valued at $38,520,401,217.15. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 6,993,520 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.63, for a total value of $284,146,717.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 948,077,805 shares in the company, valued at $38,520,401,217.15. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the company’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 transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 120,072,238 shares of company stock valued at $4,833,067,143. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BAC. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Piper Sandler Companies raised shares of Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.69.

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.