Eastern Bank Has $63.72 Million Stock Position in Bank of America Corporation $BAC

Eastern Bank reduced its position in shares of Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) by 1.2% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,346,473 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 16,835 shares during the period. Bank of America comprises about 1.2% of Eastern Bank’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $63,715,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in Bank of America by 45.1% during the 1st quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 48,112,090 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,007,718,000 after buying an additional 14,960,086 shares during the period. Unisphere Establishment raised its stake in Bank of America by 1,642.5% during the 1st quarter. Unisphere Establishment now owns 4,195,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $175,057,000 after buying an additional 3,954,250 shares during the period. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $164,623,000. Maverick Capital Ltd. acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 1st quarter worth approximately $152,098,000. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its stake in Bank of America by 62.9% during the 2nd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 8,904,561 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $421,564,000 after buying an additional 3,438,876 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, insider James P. Demare sold 148,391 shares of the 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 223,407 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,180,656.99. This represents a 39.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Seaport Global Securities increased their price objective on Bank of America from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Bank of America from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. HSBC increased their price objective on Bank of America from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on Bank of America from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. Twenty-one analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.64.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $48.62 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The company has a market capitalization of $360.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.22, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $49.61 and a 200 day moving average of $45.50. Bank of America Corporation has a 12 month low of $33.06 and a 12 month high of $52.88.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly 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 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 return on equity of 10.25% and a net margin of 14.81%.Bank of America’s revenue was up 4.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.83 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Corporation will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase 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 purchase 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.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. 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. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.75%.

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.