BNP Paribas Cuts Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

BNP Paribas lowered its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 32.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,030 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 987 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Bank of America were worth $81,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in Bank of America by 1.6% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,347,000 after acquiring an additional 895,884 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 4.0% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,794,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,003 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 2.8% in the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $886,499,000 after acquiring an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Bank of America by 0.4% in the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $676,264,000 after acquiring an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 23.6% in the second quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $646,693,000 after acquiring an additional 3,109,197 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Bank of America

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,031,639 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.66, for a total transaction of $326,566,441.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 874,692,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $35,564,987,454.24. This trade represents a 0.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 77,946,615 shares of company stock valued at $3,152,226,690 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price 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. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. 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 note on Friday, November 15th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. 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 issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.26.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $47.76 on Thursday. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $29.32 and a 12-month high of $47.98. 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 cap of $366.46 billion, a PE ratio of 17.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50-day moving average of $42.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.87.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. 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 2.18%. 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.