Clearstead Trust LLC Purchases 834 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Clearstead Trust LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1,489.3% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 890 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 834 shares during the period. Clearstead Trust LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $34,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Bank of America by 10.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Bank of America by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,408,520,000 after purchasing an additional 1,315,056 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% in the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,189,379 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,353,216,000 after buying an additional 4,338,679 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. HSBC reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $39.00 target price (up from $38.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Erste Group Bank raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.92.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 24,984,363 shares of company stock valued at $1,089,448,152 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE BAC traded down $0.11 on Friday, reaching $42.90. 43,902,967 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 37,118,136. The firm has a market cap of $335.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $40.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.96. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $44.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its 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 net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th were paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.24%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.22%.

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.