Westmount Partners LLC Buys 2,094 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Westmount Partners LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 10.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 22,445 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,094 shares during the period. Westmount Partners LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $986,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 1.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,546,871,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700,141 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew 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 worth $1,794,164,000 after buying an additional 1,731,003 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC grew 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 worth $886,499,000 after buying an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in 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 purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BAC has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Phillip Securities raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Bank of America from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.50.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $44.98. The stock had a trading volume of 14,898,307 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,807,670. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $31.27 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $45.53 and its 200-day moving average is $42.22. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $345.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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 SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.