Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Stake Lessened by RW Investment Management LLC

RW Investment Management LLC lowered its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 4.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 19,196 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 891 shares during the period. RW Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $762,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after acquiring an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after acquiring an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 23.6% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $646,693,000 after acquiring an additional 3,109,197 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Bank of America by 3.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after buying an additional 569,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service increased its position in Bank of America by 15.2% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 13,502,778 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $535,790,000 after buying an additional 1,783,631 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Price Performance

Bank of America stock opened at $46.24 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $354.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.32. The business’s fifty day moving average is $41.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.55. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $29.32 and a 52 week high of $47.02.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.82%.

Bank of America declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on BAC shares. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.26.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total value of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 11,422,560 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.78, for a total value of $465,811,996.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 835,908,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,088,345,979.30. The trade was a 1.35 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 102,848,970 shares of company stock worth $4,145,103,288. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Bank of America Profile

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.