Cooper Financial Group Raises Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Cooper Financial Group raised its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 13.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 44,441 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,388 shares during the quarter. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,953,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in Bank of America by 31,021.6% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 10,207,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $405,049,000 after purchasing an additional 10,175,100 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1,432.1% in the 2nd quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 6,151,042 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $244,627,000 after acquiring an additional 5,749,567 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 193.4% in the 3rd quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 7,608,305 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $301,898,000 after acquiring an additional 5,015,378 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Bank of America by 3,550.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,547,788 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,804,560,000 after buying an additional 4,423,215 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D1 Capital Partners L.P. purchased a new position in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth $174,858,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total value of $369,952,591.90. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of BAC traded down $0.12 during trading on Monday, reaching $44.99. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 17,288,976 shares, compared to its average volume of 31,240,334. The company has a fifty day moving average of $45.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $42.22. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $31.27 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The company has a market cap of $345.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. 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 announced its 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. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BAC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Bank of America from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. 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.

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.