Clear Rock Advisors LLC Acquires 1,425 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Clear Rock Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 81,998 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,425 shares during the period. Bank of America comprises about 1.3% of Clear Rock Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest position. Clear Rock Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,109,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $24,437,936,000 after acquiring an additional 36,124,363 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth $3,734,407,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 10.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,502,720,000 after buying an additional 9,879,524 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 41,833,075 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,408,520,000 after buying an additional 1,315,056 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 40,508,709 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,363,928,000 after buying an additional 2,935,040 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on BAC shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Piper Sandler upgraded Bank of America from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $42.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Bank of America from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.07.

Bank of America Trading Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $1.92 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $37.58. 76,727,990 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 42,436,524. The stock has a market cap of $291.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 1.35. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $24.96 and a fifty-two week high of $44.44. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 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 business had revenue of $25.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Investors of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.77%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 33.22%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total transaction of $559,278,840.51. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at approximately $44,958,509,063.91. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 56,538,765 shares of company stock worth $2,403,399,367 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.