Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by Claro Advisors LLC

Claro Advisors LLC lowered its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 21.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 47,590 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 12,722 shares during the period. Claro Advisors LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $2,092,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Fairway Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank acquired a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at $29,000. Highline Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 152.7% during the fourth quarter. Highline Wealth Partners LLC now owns 844 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 510 shares during the period. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 525.9% during the third quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 852 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America in the 3rd quarter valued at about $45,000. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the topic of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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. UBS Group upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $57.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.50.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of Bank of America stock traded down $0.03 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $45.08. 22,168,658 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 31,812,879. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $345.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.39, a price-to-earnings-growth 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.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

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