Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Purchases 213,249 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 78.5% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 485,064 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 213,249 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $19,291,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Norges Bank bought a new position in Bank of America in the 4th quarter valued at $3,734,407,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,437,936,000 after acquiring an additional 36,124,363 shares during the period. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 360.9% in the 4th quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 37,290,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,255,514,000 after purchasing an additional 29,198,846 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Bank of America by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 104,030,844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,502,720,000 after purchasing an additional 9,879,524 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AMF Tjanstepension AB grew its holdings in Bank of America by 959.6% during the second quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 9,327,332 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $370,948,000 after purchasing an additional 8,447,091 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BAC. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective (up from $46.00) on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Cfra reaffirmed a “sell” rating and issued a $39.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Tuesday, July 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.22.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock traded down $1.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $38.76. 47,007,588 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 39,322,148. The stock has a market cap of $303.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.42, a PEG ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.35. 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $24.96 and a 52 week high of $44.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $40.30 and its 200-day moving average is $38.49.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $25.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.22 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 13.28% and a return on equity of 10.56%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.88 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This is an increase from Bank of America’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.68%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 35.99%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, insider Lindsay D. Hans sold 10,901 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.91, for a total value of $402,355.91. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at $402,577.37. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other 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 value of $402,355.91. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 10,907 shares in the company, valued at $402,577.37. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 12,690,693 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.07, for a total transaction of $559,278,840.51. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,020,161,313 shares in the company, valued at $44,958,509,063.91. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 112,670,620 shares of company stock worth $4,651,681,930 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.