B&L Asset Management LLC Takes $659,000 Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

B&L Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 16,612 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $659,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America during the second quarter valued at $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America by 839.0% in the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 646 shares in the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in Bank of America in the 3rd quarter valued at about $29,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 525.9% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 70,007,916 shares of company stock worth $2,829,836,123 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on BAC. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.26.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of BAC opened at $47.51 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $43.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $41.00. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $30.04 and a 12-month high of $48.08. 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 firm has a market cap of $364.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.32.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for 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 business’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.