B.A. Schrock Wealth Management Inc. Makes New $1.39 Million Investment in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

B.A. Schrock Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 25,515 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,389,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nolet Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 13.3% during the third quarter. Nolet Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 1,103 shares during the last quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 14.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 19,477 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,060,000 after purchasing an additional 2,476 shares during the period. Ashurst Perkins Coie Trust Co lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2,891.2% during the 3rd quarter. Ashurst Perkins Coie Trust Co now owns 30,420 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,656,000 after purchasing an additional 29,403 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 314.9% during the third quarter. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 283,764 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $15,445,000 after purchasing an additional 215,365 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 75.7% during the third quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 233,572 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $12,713,000 after purchasing an additional 100,624 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Bank of America

Here are the key news stories impacting Bank of America this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Underlying banking activity remained healthy: net interest income increased 8% year over year to $16.4 billion, consumer banking revenue rose 4%, wealth-management revenue climbed 13%, average loans grew 6%, and deposits increased 2%. The bank also returned $8.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases. Bank of America Reports Third-Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: Some market commentary argued that the selloff could create a long-term buying opportunity, while options activity and a reported institutional purchase of long-dated BAC call options pointed to bullish interest among some investors. Unusual Long-Dated BAC Call Options
• Neutral Sentiment: CEO Brian Moynihan said Bank of America is addressing regulatory requirements and expects elevated remediation and software-patching expenses to decline over time. The bank hired about 1,000 contractors to help fix software vulnerabilities identified through Anthropic’s Mythos testing. Bank of America Software-Patching Costs
• Negative Sentiment: Adjusted EPS was $1.08 versus the $1.10 consensus, while revenue of roughly $30.0 billion missed estimates near $30.6 billion. Reported net income fell 17% to $6.9 billion, or $0.91 per share, after the regulatory charge. Bank of America Earnings Miss
• Negative Sentiment: Regulators imposed approximately $1.21 billion in penalties over anti-money-laundering, Bank Secrecy Act, and sanctions-compliance failures, including failures to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions. The non-tax-deductible charge reduced quarterly earnings by about $0.17 per share and intensified concerns that compliance problems may persist. Bank of America Regulatory Penalties
• Negative Sentiment: Expenses rose faster than revenue, pushing the adjusted efficiency ratio to about 62% from 60%. Bond-trading revenue fell 17%, investment-banking and trading results disappointed, and provisions for credit losses reached $1.3 billion. Hotter-than-expected inflation and several shareholder-law-firm investigations added to the cautious backdrop.

Bank of America Trading Down 4.7%

Shares of BAC opened at $51.40 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $59.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.69. Bank of America Corporation has a twelve month low of $46.12 and a twelve month high of $65.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $359.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.10 by ($0.02). Bank of America had a return on equity of 12.20% and a net margin of 17.56%. The firm had revenue of $29.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.58 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.06 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 4.60 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th were given a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.5%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.36%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Citigroup increased their target price on Bank of America from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on Bank of America from $68.00 to $62.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Bank of America from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Bank of America from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.22.

Bank of America Company Profile

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) is a diversified financial services company serving individual consumers, small businesses, middle-market companies and large corporations. Its principal businesses include consumer banking, wealth and investment management, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and sales and trading.

Through its banking and financial services businesses, the company offers deposit accounts, credit cards, mortgages, home equity products, consumer and business loans, payment services, treasury management, brokerage services and investment advice.