Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by ARGA Investment Management LP

ARGA Investment Management LP lowered its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 0.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 234,190 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 517 shares during the quarter. ARGA Investment Management LP’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $9,293,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Boston Common Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Bank of America in the second quarter valued at $2,373,000. Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in Bank of America by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 30,734 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,222,000 after acquiring an additional 974 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH lifted its position in Bank of America by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH now owns 12,871 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $512,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the period. Great Waters Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $214,000. Finally, Mather Group LLC. increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 30.7% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 43,310 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,642,000 after purchasing an additional 10,182 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of BAC opened at $47.51 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.80 and a quick ratio of 0.80. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $30.04 and a 1-year high of $48.08. The stock has a market cap of $364.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.32. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.00.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Bank of America’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective 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 raised their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 5,031,014 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.28, for a total transaction of $202,649,243.92. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 863,977,599 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,801,017,687.72. This represents a 0.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold 70,007,916 shares of company stock valued at $2,829,836,123 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.