Wedmont Private Capital Grows Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Wedmont Private Capital boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 13.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 66,232 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,708 shares during the period. Wedmont Private Capital’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Westmount Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Bank of America by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Westmount Partners LLC now owns 22,445 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $986,000 after buying an additional 2,094 shares during the period. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc grew its position in Bank of America by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Fragasso Financial Advisors Inc now owns 6,946 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $305,000 after acquiring an additional 404 shares during the period. Thomasville National Bank increased its stake in Bank of America by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Thomasville National Bank now owns 63,563 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,794,000 after acquiring an additional 4,489 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 14,160 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $622,000 after purchasing an additional 872 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Alliance LLC lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 127.2% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 56,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,462,000 after purchasing an additional 31,356 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Bank of America from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. HSBC upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Bank of America from $57.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.50.

Bank of America Price Performance

Bank of America stock traded down $0.15 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $44.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 15,769,699 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,921,982. The stock has a market capitalization of $344.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $31.27 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $45.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $42.22. 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 announced its 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. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. Bank of America’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.