BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp Decreases Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp decreased its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 11.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,271,669 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 290,163 shares during the quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $90,140,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Accent Capital Management LLC grew its holdings 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 buying an additional 11,873 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 237.6% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after acquiring an additional 36,089 shares during the last quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP grew its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,421,000 after purchasing an additional 33,983 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. increased its position in 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, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its stake in Bank of America by 647.7% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 1,823,667 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $72,363,000 after purchasing an additional 1,579,767 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total transaction of $369,952,591.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. The trade was a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders have sold 70,007,916 shares of company stock valued at $2,829,836,123 over the last quarter. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Phillip Securities raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC opened at $47.52 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $30.04 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $364.62 billion, a PE ratio of 17.28, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.32. 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 50-day simple moving average of $43.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.98.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s payout ratio 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.