Howe & Rusling Inc. Has $8.13 Million Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Howe & Rusling Inc. lowered its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 204,955 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,997 shares during the period. Howe & Rusling Inc.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $8,133,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BAC shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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 report on Friday, November 15th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:BAC opened at $46.41 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $29.32 and a twelve month high of $47.02. The company has a market cap of $356.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $41.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.51.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its earnings results 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. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The business 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 firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. 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 2.24%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 37.82%.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the financial services provider to reacquire up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total value of $369,952,591.90. Following the sale, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were 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. The trade was a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 102,848,970 shares of company stock valued at $4,145,103,288. 0.29% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.