Jackson Square Capital LLC Makes New Investment in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Key Points

• Jackson Square Capital LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America Corporation, purchasing 5,399 shares valued at approximately $255,000 in the second quarter.
• Bank of America's quarterly dividend has been increased to $0.28 per share, providing a yield of 2.2%, up from the previous dividend of $0.26.
• The company has announced a significant stock buyback program, authorized to repurchase up to $40 billion in shares, indicating management's belief that the stock is undervalued.

Jackson Square Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 5,399 shares of the financial services provider's stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Nova Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 75.2% during the 2nd quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. now owns 529 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 227 shares in the last quarter. Vega Investment Solutions purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Wood Tarver Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Mascagni Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the first quarter worth about $40,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BAC. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $55.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. HSBC lowered Bank of America from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $51.00 in a report on Monday, July 7th. Phillip Securities lowered shares of Bank of America from a "strong-buy" rating to a "moderate buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Bank of America from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, September 13th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $50.82.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC stock traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $52.27. 98,925,969 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 41,864,695. Bank of America Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $33.06 and a fifty-two week high of $52.66. The stock's fifty day moving average is $48.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $44.45. The company has a market cap of $387.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.34. 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 released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.03. The company had revenue of ($22,273.00) million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The company's revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.83 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This is an increase 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 2.1%. Bank of America's dividend payout ratio is 32.75%.

Bank of America declared that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of Bank of America 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 223,407 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. The trade was a 39.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.30% 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.