Board of the Pension Protection Fund Purchases Shares of 6,100 Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Key Points

• The Pension Protection Fund acquired 6,100 shares of Bank of America, valued at approximately $289,000, marking the fund's new stake in the financial services company.
• Bank of America recently announced a $40 billion share buyback plan, indicating confidence from its Board of Directors in the stock's valuation.
• The company's quarterly dividend was increased to $0.28 per share, reflecting a positive change from its previous dividend of $0.26.

Board of the Pension Protection Fund acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 6,100 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $289,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $2,007,718,000 after purchasing an additional 14,960,086 shares during the period. Unisphere Establishment boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1,642.5% in the first quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,195,000 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $175,057,000 after purchasing an additional 3,954,250 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth approximately $164,623,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the first quarter worth approximately $152,098,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 62.9% in the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 8,904,561 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $421,564,000 after buying an additional 3,438,876 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.30% of the company's stock.

Bank of America Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of BAC opened at $48.62 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $360.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Corporation has a 1 year low of $33.06 and a 1 year high of $52.88. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $49.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $45.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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 revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This is a positive change from Bank of America's previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.3%. Bank of America's payout ratio is currently 32.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BAC. Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, September 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Daiwa Capital Markets upped their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Bank of America from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 16th. Finally, HSBC upped their price target on Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Twenty-one 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.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $54.64.

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.

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