Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Buys 1,579,767 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 647.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,823,667 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,579,767 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $72,363,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 56.0% in the 3rd quarter. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC now owns 114,363 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,538,000 after buying an additional 41,056 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 18.0% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 10,382 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $412,000 after acquiring an additional 1,583 shares during the period. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.0% in the third quarter. Sompo Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 115,900 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $4,599,000 after acquiring an additional 1,180 shares during the last quarter. StoneX Group Inc. increased its position in Bank of America by 7.1% in the third quarter. StoneX Group Inc. now owns 24,156 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $959,000 after purchasing an additional 1,602 shares during the period. Finally, Algert Global LLC bought a new stake in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth about $606,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on BAC. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.26.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 48.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 10,975,008 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.87, for a total value of $437,573,568.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 910,731,659 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,310,871,244.33. This trade represents a 1.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 96,094,698 shares of company stock worth $3,876,350,805. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.2 %

BAC opened at $47.00 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $360.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.67. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $29.32 and a 12 month high of $47.22.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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 $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.82%.

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.