Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Buys Shares of 12,081 Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm purchased 12,081 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $479,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Accent Capital Management LLC increased its position in Bank of America by 43.0% in the 3rd quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,567,000 after buying an additional 11,873 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 237.6% in the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 36,089 shares during the period. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 125.8% during the 3rd quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 61,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,421,000 after purchasing an additional 33,983 shares during the period. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in Bank of America by 27.1% during the first quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 98,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,734,000 after buying an additional 20,916 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SteelPeak Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 37.7% during the 2nd quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 54,393 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,163,000 after purchasing an additional 14,901 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $46.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80. The firm has a market cap of $357.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $42.07 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.59. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $29.32 and a 1 year high of $47.05.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 quarterly revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given 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 yield of 2.23%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.82%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total value of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This represents a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 10,975,008 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.87, for a total value of $437,573,568.96. Following the sale, the insider now owns 910,731,659 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,310,871,244.33. This represents a 1.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 96,094,698 shares of company stock worth $3,876,350,805 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Oppenheimer upped their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.26.

About Bank of America

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.