Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Stock Holdings Increased by Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.

Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 20,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 231 shares during the quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $828,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BAC. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,347,000 after acquiring an additional 895,884 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 4.0% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,794,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. Sanders Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,499,000 after acquiring an additional 601,211 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after acquiring an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 23.6% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $646,693,000 after acquiring an additional 3,109,197 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total transaction of $369,952,591.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders sold a total of 61,976,277 shares of company stock worth $2,503,269,682 in the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Phillip Securities raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.82.

Bank of America Price Performance

NYSE BAC opened at $47.02 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $43.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.02. The company has a market cap of $360.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $30.33 and a 1 year high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 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.