Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by Fortitude Family Office LLC

Fortitude Family Office LLC lowered its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 23,136 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 548 shares during the quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,017,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in Bank of America during the third quarter worth approximately $29,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in Bank of America by 525.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America in the 3rd quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth $73,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.50.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $46.21 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $45.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market cap of $354.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.80, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $31.27 and a 1-year high of $48.08.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect 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 was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was 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 (DPR) is 37.82%.

Bank of America Company 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.