Howard Financial Services LTD. Acquires 617 Shares of Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Howard Financial Services LTD. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,303 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 617 shares during the quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $393,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. 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. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $53.00 price target on Bank of America and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Bank of America from $46.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 10th. Finally, Phillip Securities downgraded Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 25th. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.39.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $50.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $48.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $44.28. Bank of America Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.06 and a 1-year high of $50.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $374.79 billion, a PE ratio of 14.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.34.

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

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 11.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 5th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total value of $6,762,177.87. Following the sale, the insider owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.