68,065 Shares in Bank of America Corporation $BAC Bought by Copeland Capital Management LLC

Key Points

• Copeland Capital Management purchased 68,065 Bank of America shares worth approximately $3.7 million, while institutional investors collectively own 70.71% of the company.
• Analysts maintain a generally positive outlook, with 19 Buy ratings and seven Holds producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $64.22.
• Bank of America increased its quarterly dividend to $0.32 per share, but its latest results missed expectations, with adjusted EPS of $1.08 versus $1.10 expected and revenue of $29.96 billion versus $30.58 billion forecast.

Copeland Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 68,065 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $3,705,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bamco Inc. NY increased its holdings in Bank of America by 45.4% during the 2nd quarter. Bamco Inc. NY now owns 40,994 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $2,336,000 after acquiring an additional 12,794 shares in the last quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,089,000. Bernicke Wealth Management Ltd. purchased a new position in Bank of America during the second quarter worth $2,132,000. Legacy Private Trust Co. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 11.7% in the third quarter. Legacy Private Trust Co. now owns 115,136 shares of the financial services provider's stock valued at $6,267,000 after acquiring an additional 12,016 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter valued at $94,447,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Bank of America from $70.00 to $67.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, October 5th. Evercore set a $62.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $72.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Tuesday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $64.22.

Bank of America Price Performance

BAC opened at $51.40 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $359.45 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $59.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.69. Bank of America Corporation has a 1 year low of $46.12 and a 1 year high of $65.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.83.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.10 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $29.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $30.58 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 17.56% and a return on equity of 12.20%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.06 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Bank of America Corporation will post 4.60 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th were issued a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. This is an increase from Bank of America's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.5%. Bank of America's payout ratio is 29.36%.

Key Stories Impacting Bank of America

Here are the key news stories impacting Bank of America this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Underlying banking activity remained healthy: net interest income increased 8% year over year to $16.4 billion, consumer banking revenue rose 4%, wealth-management revenue climbed 13%, average loans grew 6%, and deposits increased 2%. The bank also returned $8.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Bank of America Reports Third-Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: Some market commentary argued that the selloff could create a long-term buying opportunity, while options activity and a reported institutional purchase of long-dated BAC call options pointed to bullish interest among some investors. Unusual Long-Dated BAC Call Options
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Brian Moynihan said Bank of America is addressing regulatory requirements and expects elevated remediation and software-patching expenses to decline over time. The bank hired about 1,000 contractors to help fix software vulnerabilities identified through Anthropic’s Mythos testing. Bank of America Software-Patching Costs
• Negative Sentiment: Adjusted EPS was $1.08 versus the $1.10 consensus, while revenue of roughly $30.0 billion missed estimates near $30.6 billion. Reported net income fell 17% to $6.9 billion, or $0.91 per share, after the regulatory charge. Bank of America Earnings Miss
• Negative Sentiment: Regulators imposed approximately $1.21 billion in penalties over anti-money-laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, and sanctions-compliance failures, including failures to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions. The non-tax-deductible charge reduced quarterly earnings by about $0.17 per share and intensified concerns that compliance problems may persist. Bank of America Regulatory Penalties
• Negative Sentiment: Expenses rose faster than revenue, pushing the adjusted efficiency ratio to about 62% from 60%. Bond-trading revenue fell 17%, investment-banking and trading results disappointed, and provisions for credit losses reached $1.3 billion. Hotter-than-expected inflation and several shareholder-law-firm investigations added to the cautious backdrop.

About Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation NYSE: BAC is a diversified financial services company serving individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies and large corporations. Its principal businesses include consumer banking, wealth and investment management, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and sales and trading.

Through its banking and financial services businesses, the company offers deposit accounts, credit cards, mortgages, home equity products, consumer and business loans, payment services, treasury management, brokerage services and investment advice.

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