Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by Altfest L J & Co. Inc.

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. lowered its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 11.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 20,303 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,528 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $684,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 108,111.3% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 193,168,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,397,725,000 after purchasing an additional 192,989,515 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Bank of America during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,436,543,000. Barclays PLC raised its stake in Bank of America by 97.3% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,130,538,000 after buying an additional 20,362,295 shares during the period. Snider Financial Group grew its holdings in Bank of America by 9,477.3% during the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $5,956,000 after purchasing an additional 14,297,496 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3,474.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,658,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $480,579,000 after buying an additional 11,332,721 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on BAC shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Bank of America from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 1st. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Finally, Odeon Capital Group lowered shares of Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $33.90 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $36.15.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:BAC traded down $0.03 on Thursday, reaching $37.78. 20,621,414 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 40,770,902. The company has a market capitalization of $298.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.32, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.38. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $24.96 and a 12 month high of $37.90. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.26.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.69 by $0.01. Bank of America had a net margin of 15.42% and a return on equity of 11.38%. The firm had revenue of $22 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.70 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. Bank of America’s revenue was down 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be issued a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.54%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.27%.

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.