Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC Decreases Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Key Points

• Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC reduced its stake in Bank of America Corporation by 35.6% in the 1st quarter, leaving them with 8,965 shares valued at approximately $375,000.
• Bank of America recently announced a quarterly dividend increase to $0.28 per share, which will be paid on September 26th, boosting the annualized dividend to $1.12.
• The company also initiated a $40 billion stock buyback plan, indicating the board's belief that the stock is currently undervalued.

Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC lowered its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) by 35.6% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,965 shares of the financial services provider's stock after selling 4,962 shares during the quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC's holdings in Bank of America were worth $375,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was 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 directly owned 223,407 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,180,656.99. The trade was a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BAC. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Baird R W downgraded Bank of America from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Bank of America from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Robert W. Baird reiterated a "neutral" rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered Bank of America from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Seventeen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $50.13.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE BAC traded up $0.27 during trading on Friday, reaching $50.76. The stock had a trading volume of 32,491,463 shares, compared to its average volume of 34,794,552. Bank of America Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $33.06 and a fifty-two week high of $50.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80. The business's 50-day moving average price is $47.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.95. The company has a market cap of $375.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.84, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.31.

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

Bank of America declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. This is a boost from Bank of America's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Bank of America's payout ratio is presently 32.75%.

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.