Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Cuts Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC lowered its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 6.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 10,697 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 735 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $470,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the 3rd quarter valued at $29,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc increased its holdings in Bank of America by 525.9% in the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares in the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America during the third quarter worth $45,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth about $73,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of several research reports. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.50.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other news, 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 transaction 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. The trade was a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Bank of America Price Performance

Bank of America stock traded down $1.42 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $44.79. The company had a trading volume of 16,335,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,360,404. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $31.27 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The company has a market capitalization of $343.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.15. 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 (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.32%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.82%.

Bank of America Company 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.