Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by Acropolis Investment Management LLC

Acropolis Investment Management LLC reduced its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 21.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,902 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 4,051 shares during the period. Acropolis Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $591,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in Bank of America by 1.6% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,794,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,003 shares in the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 601,211 shares during the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $646,693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,109,197 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders sold 70,007,916 shares of company stock worth $2,829,836,123 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock opened at $47.52 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $364.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $30.04 and a 12-month high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The company’s revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

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 issued a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 37.82%.

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.