Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Invests $211,000 in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 4,455 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. grew its holdings in Bank of America by 121.0% during the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 62,041 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 33,963 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 696,416 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $29,061,000 after acquiring an additional 50,296 shares in the last quarter. Prosperity Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the 1st quarter worth about $998,000. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America by 37.2% during the first quarter. Alpha Cubed Investments LLC now owns 65,038 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,714,000 after purchasing an additional 17,619 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 170.5% in the first quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 238,473 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $9,951,000 after purchasing an additional 150,299 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on BAC. Oppenheimer lifted 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 note on Wednesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target 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. Citigroup increased their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $53.00 price target on shares of Bank of America and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $52.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Sixteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $50.61.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Bank of America stock opened at $52.17 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $48.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.45. Bank of America Corporation has a 52 week low of $33.06 and a 52 week high of $52.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $386.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.25, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.34. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.03. The company had revenue of ($22,273.00) million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.83 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.75%.

Bank of America announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 23rd that permits the company to buyback $40.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 1st. The stock was 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 directly owned 223,407 shares in the company, valued at $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Bank of America Company 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.