Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)

Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 5.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 74,754 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,624 shares during the quarter. Sound View Wealth Advisors Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,119,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 23.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 88,210,527 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,876,853,000 after purchasing an additional 17,031,143 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Bank of America by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 122,437,422 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,381,126,000 after acquiring an additional 11,691,451 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 67,935,940 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,985,785,000 after acquiring an additional 9,980,859 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 39.6% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 33,152,004 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,457,031,000 after acquiring an additional 9,409,076 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 31.1% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 39,051,595 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,716,318,000 after purchasing an additional 9,258,040 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on BAC shares. HSBC lowered shares of Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their price target for the company from $47.00 to $51.00 in a report on Monday, July 7th. UBS Group upped their target price on Bank of America from $46.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Citigroup lifted their price target on Bank of America from $50.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lowered their price objective on Bank of America from $55.00 to $52.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Baird R W lowered shares of Bank of America from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.13.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.0%

Shares of BAC opened at $47.96 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $46.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $361.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.02, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.30. Bank of America Corporation has a one year low of $33.06 and a one year high of $49.31.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by $0.03. The business had revenue of ($22,273.00) million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.79 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.81% and a return on equity of 10.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.83 earnings per share. Equities research 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 business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.34%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 5th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 30.41%.

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

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.