Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Declares $0.26 Quarterly Dividend

Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 16th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.26 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.43%.

Bank of America has increased its dividend by an average of 8.5% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Bank of America has a payout ratio of 28.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Bank of America to earn $3.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.04 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 29.0%.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $42.80 on Thursday. Bank of America has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $44.44. The company has a market capitalization of $334.71 billion, a PE ratio of 14.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.39 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $39.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.35. 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 (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The company 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 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The firm’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $402,577.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Bank of America news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total transaction of $402,355.91. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 10,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $402,577.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,291,807 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.13, for a total transaction of $530,145,635.91. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 998,961,079 shares in the company, valued at $43,085,191,337.27. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 148,230,389 shares of company stock valued at $6,023,064,684 in the last three months. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the topic of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.62.

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.