MetLife Investment Management LLC Sells 58,433 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

MetLife Investment Management LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,756,069 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 58,433 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $69,681,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Accent Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 11,873 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments raised its position in Bank of America by 237.6% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 36,089 shares during the last quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 125.8% during the third quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 61,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,421,000 after purchasing an additional 33,983 shares during the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 173.7% during the third quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 583,412 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $23,150,000 after acquiring an additional 370,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 27.1% during the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 98,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,734,000 after purchasing an additional 20,916 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently commented on BAC. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,031,639 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.66, for a total transaction of $326,566,441.74. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 874,692,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,564,987,454.24. The trade was a 0.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 77,946,615 shares of company stock valued at $3,152,226,690. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Bank of America Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of BAC opened at $47.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $367.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.36, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $29.32 and a 52 week high of $47.94. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $42.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $40.82. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion during 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 company’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 37.82%.

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.