Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by Appleton Partners Inc. MA

Appleton Partners Inc. MA trimmed its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 278,744 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 16,432 shares during the period. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $12,251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Accent Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Bank of America by 43.0% in the 3rd quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,567,000 after purchasing an additional 11,873 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 237.6% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after buying an additional 36,089 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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 valued at $5,546,871,000 after buying an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. Clarendon Private LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter worth about $798,000. Finally, Baker Avenue Asset Management LP boosted its position in Bank of America by 125.8% during the third quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 61,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,421,000 after acquiring an additional 33,983 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on BAC. Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company 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, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $47.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $363.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.73, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $32.35 and a twelve month high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.29% and a net margin of 14.10%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.12 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.70 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.67 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

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.