Wharton Business Group LLC Acquires 66,131 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Wharton Business Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC - Free Report) by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 419,857 shares of the financial services provider's stock after buying an additional 66,131 shares during the quarter. Wharton Business Group LLC's holdings in Bank of America were worth $16,660,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in BAC. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 839.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 723 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares in the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America during the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its holdings in Bank of America by 525.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider's stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total value of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total transaction of $369,952,591.90. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 102,848,970 shares of company stock valued at $4,145,103,288 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Phillip Securities raised shares of Bank of America from a "neutral" rating to an "accumulate" rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of America from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Bank of America stock traded down $0.03 during trading on Monday, hitting $46.72. The stock had a trading volume of 32,332,877 shares, compared to its average volume of 38,693,910. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.37. The company has a market capitalization of $358.48 billion, a PE ratio of 17.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $29.32 and a 1 year high of $47.02.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.82%.

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.