Arete Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Key Points

• Arete Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Bank of America Corporation by 13.9%, now holding 84,325 shares worth approximately $3.3 million.
• Bank of America recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.28 per share, raising its annualized yield to 2.3%, up from the previous $0.26.
• The company initiated a $40 billion share buyback program, suggesting confidence in the stock's value, and currently has 70.71% of its shares owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Arete Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) by 13.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 84,325 shares of the financial services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 10,292 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vega Investment Solutions bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, Cloud Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the first quarter worth $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BAC. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Bank of America from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Phillip Securities downgraded shares of Bank of America from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $52.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $53.00 price objective on Bank of America and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, June 30th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $50.39.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.2%

BAC stock traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $50.17. 31,674,616 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 34,777,764. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $48.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.15. Bank of America Corporation has a 12-month low of $33.06 and a 12-month high of $50.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $371.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.70, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.34.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 14.81%.The company's quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a positive change from Bank of America's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.2%. Bank of America's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.75%.

Bank of America announced that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 11.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total transaction of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at $10,180,656.99. The trade was a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Bank of America Company 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.