Bank of America Corporation $BAC Stock: West Wealth Group LLC Grows Holdings

West Wealth Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 246.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 34,373 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,463 shares during the quarter. West Wealth Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,871,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,571,060,000. Amundi increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 12.5% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 42,385,115 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,066,274,000 after purchasing an additional 4,721,969 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG bought a new position in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth approximately $2,359,172,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,313,953,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 31,135,112 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,517,599,000 after buying an additional 561,413 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Down 4.7%

Shares of BAC stock opened at $51.40 on Thursday. Bank of America Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $46.12 and a fifty-two week high of $65.22. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $59.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $56.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.83. The company has a market cap of $359.45 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79, a P/E/G ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 1.21.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The financial services provider reported $1.08 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $29.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.58 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.06 EPS. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Bank of America Corporation will post 4.60 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on BAC shares. Oppenheimer cut Bank of America from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $75.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 24th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $70.00 to $67.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Bank of America from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Bank of America from $62.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Nineteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $64.22.

Bank of America News Summary

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.

About Bank of America

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.