Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 10,778 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 284 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $428,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the second quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its position in Bank of America by 839.0% in the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 723 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Bank of America during the third quarter valued at about $29,000. Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in Bank of America by 525.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 852 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $46.75 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $29.22 and a twelve month high of $46.84. The company has a market cap of $358.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $41.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

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 for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to purchase up to 7.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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 $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 2,305,415 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total value of $90,533,647.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 812,041,811 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,888,881,917.97. The trade was a 0.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,824,063.60. This represents a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 107,883,988 shares of company stock valued at $4,344,741,752 over the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on BAC. Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Barclays lifted their target price on Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased 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 note on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.26.

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.