Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Bank of America (NYSE:BAC)

Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 257,373 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 61% compared to the average daily volume of 159,859 call options.

Institutional Trading of Bank of America

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in Bank of America by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 108,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $4,785,000 after buying an additional 25,143 shares during the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.6% in the first quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 18,924 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $790,000 after purchasing an additional 651 shares in the last quarter. Cloud Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the first quarter worth about $40,000. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% in the first quarter. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. now owns 20,929 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $873,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Inc. OK increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.4% in the first quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 44,685 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,865,000 after purchasing an additional 1,459 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.0%

BAC opened at $53.56 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.79. The company’s 50-day moving average is $51.18 and its 200 day moving average is $47.31. Bank of America has a fifty-two week low of $33.06 and a fifty-two week high of $54.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $396.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.59, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.13. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.70% and a return on equity of 10.76%. The company had revenue of $28.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.05 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.81 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Bank of America will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 23rd that authorizes the company to buyback $40.00 billion in 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 usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 26th. Investors of record on Friday, December 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 5th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.52%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on BAC shares. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Bank of America to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Argus raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $56.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Twenty-three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $57.59.

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.