Cypress Capital Group Grows Holdings in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Cypress Capital Group boosted its position in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 18.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,604 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,583 shares during the period. Cypress Capital Group’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,070,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nova Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 75.2% during the 2nd quarter. Nova Wealth Management Inc. now owns 529 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. RMG Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Acima Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America during the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, HighMark Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 233.6% in the 1st quarter. HighMark Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 743 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 29th. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Bank of America from $57.00 to $56.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 23rd. Erste Group Bank raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Bank of America from $51.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Twenty-one investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.57, for a total value of $6,762,177.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, 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 the SEC website. 0.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $48.62 on Monday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.54. The company has a market cap of $360.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.22, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80. Bank of America Corporation has a one year low of $33.06 and a one year high of $52.88.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 earnings per share (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 the consensus estimate of $26.79 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Investors of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a positive change from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is presently 32.75%.

Bank of America declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 23rd that allows the company to repurchase $40.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 11.1% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is 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.