Portside Wealth Group LLC Grows Stake in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 12.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 56,736 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,441 shares during the quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.3% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 148,176,755 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $6,982,863,000 after buying an additional 403,652 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its holdings in Bank of America by 45.1% in the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,007,718,000 after acquiring an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Bank of America by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 39,233,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,637,205,000 after acquiring an additional 1,413,313 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Bank of America by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 31,956,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,333,351,000 after purchasing an additional 188,638 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 16,562,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $783,759,000 after purchasing an additional 894,027 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Argus increased their price objective on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Bank of America in a report on Thursday, November 6th. HSBC raised their target price on shares of Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $58.00 target price (up from $57.00) on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $57.86.

Bank of America Stock Down 2.1%

BAC opened at $51.49 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $48.19. The company has a market capitalization of $376.01 billion, a PE ratio of 14.03, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.34. Bank of America Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.06 and a 1-year high of $54.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.13. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.70% and a return on equity of 10.76%. The firm had revenue of $5.35 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $27.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.2%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.52%.

Bank of America declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

About Bank of America

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.