Bank Of America Holds 6% Of USA TODAY, Certifies It Isn't Seeking Control
The bank's passive stake totals 8,821,725 shares, and USA TODAY stock traded at $6.42 in Wednesday trading.
Bank of America holds a passive stake of about 6% in USA TODAY, or 8,821,725 shares, according to a Schedule 13G ownership disclosure filed Wednesday. The bank certified the shares were bought in the ordinary course of business, not to change or influence control of the publisher.
Shared voting power over nearly all shares
The position carries shared voting power over 8,821,338 shares and sole voting power over none. The date of the event that triggered the filing is September 30, 2026.
Bank of America filed as a parent holding company on behalf of itself and wholly owned units. Those include BofA Securities, Bank of America N.A., Merrill Lynch International, Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith and BofA Securities Europe SA.
The 6% figure rests on the 146,817,941 shares outstanding that USA TODAY reported in its 10-Q filed August 6, 2026, with share totals as of August 3, 2026.
A publisher trading at $6.42
USA TODAY, which publishes news in print and online and sells digital marketing tools to small businesses through its LocaliQ unit, traded at $6.42 in Wednesday trading. That was down about 2% from the prior close of $6.55, for a market value of $962 million.
Valuation commentary has centered on the stock's low sales multiple. A Yahoo Finance commentary by Bailey Pemberton argued the shares look cheap, at about 0.4 times sales against a Media industry average of 1.0x. The piece also laid out a bear case built on reliance on AI licensing deals with partners such as Perplexity and Microsoft.
The company's 10-K shows digital revenue was 46% of its 2025 total, or $1.1 billion, across USA TODAY Media, Newsquest and LocaliQ.
