Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC Buys 22,950 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 87.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 49,225 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,950 shares during the quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $1,953,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Accent Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 worth $1,567,000 after acquiring an additional 11,873 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments raised its position in Bank of America by 237.6% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 36,089 shares during the last quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP boosted its stake in Bank of America by 125.8% in 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 purchasing an additional 33,983 shares in the last quarter. Banco Santander S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 173.7% during the third quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 583,412 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,150,000 after purchasing an additional 370,275 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 27.1% in the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 98,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $3,734,000 after buying an additional 20,916 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the topic of several research reports. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.26.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.1 %

Bank of America stock opened at $47.50 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $364.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.27, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.32. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.41 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.32 and a fifty-two week high of $47.74.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 37.82%.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 7,938,699 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.61, for a total transaction of $322,390,566.39. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 882,723,903 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,847,417,700.83. This represents a 0.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 85,027,690 shares of company stock valued at $3,435,115,636 over the last 90 days. 0.29% of the stock is 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.