Freestone Capital Holdings LLC Sells 5,876 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC reduced its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 275,108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,876 shares during the period. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $12,091,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.7% in the third quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 7,042,374 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $279,441,000 after buying an additional 50,849 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 120.2% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $814,000 after buying an additional 10,497 shares in the last quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter worth $1,047,000. United Advisor Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 95.8% in the third quarter. United Advisor Group LLC now owns 19,681 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $781,000 after buying an additional 9,631 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HF Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 6.2% in the third quarter. HF Advisory Group LLC now owns 18,340 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 1,066 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $51.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Performance

BAC opened at $42.27 on Thursday. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $34.15 and a 12-month high of $48.08. 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 has a market capitalization of $321.46 billion, a PE ratio of 13.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $45.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.69.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted 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 net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.70 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

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.