Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Sells 625 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 4.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,284 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 625 shares during the quarter. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $527,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 5.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 644,460,334 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $24,437,936,000 after purchasing an additional 36,124,363 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.6% during 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 during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 0.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 40,354,449 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,530,241,000 after acquiring an additional 165,070 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $676,264,000 after acquiring an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 23.6% during the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $646,693,000 after acquiring an additional 3,109,197 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $45.91 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $352.26 billion, a PE ratio of 16.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.20 and a fifty-two week high of $46.52. 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 fifty day moving average of $41.22 and a 200-day moving average of $40.22.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 business had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,883,988 shares of company stock worth $4,344,741,752 over the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on BAC shares. Citigroup upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.69.

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.