Tufton Capital Management Sells 8,767 Shares of Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Tufton Capital Management lowered its stake in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 3.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 235,773 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 8,767 shares during the period. Bank of America accounts for 2.1% of Tufton Capital Management’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Tufton Capital Management’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $11,156,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 45.1% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,007,718,000 after acquiring an additional 14,960,086 shares during the last quarter. Amundi raised its stake in Bank of America by 3.7% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 39,233,293 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,637,205,000 after buying an additional 1,413,313 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in Bank of America by 0.6% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 31,956,699 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,333,351,000 after buying an additional 188,638 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in Bank of America by 5.7% during the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 16,562,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $783,759,000 after buying an additional 894,027 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its stake in Bank of America by 2.4% during the first quarter. National Pension Service now owns 12,970,274 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $541,250,000 after buying an additional 300,944 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $55.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, October 19th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Twenty-three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.59.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Bank of America stock opened at $53.56 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $396.73 billion, a PE ratio of 14.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Corporation has a 1-year low of $33.06 and a 1-year high of $53.64.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $28.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.81 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 5th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 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 is 30.52%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 buy up to 11.1% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America 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.