Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) Shares Sold by Mizuho Securities USA LLC

Mizuho Securities USA LLC cut its stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 40.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 313,872 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 210,723 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $12,454,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Quent Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Bank of America by 3.6% in the 1st quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 29,760 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,129,000 after purchasing an additional 1,037 shares during the last quarter. Davis R M Inc. lifted its holdings in Bank of America by 1.5% in the first quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 459,504 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $17,424,000 after acquiring an additional 6,904 shares during the last quarter. Rockport Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the first quarter worth approximately $629,000. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 15.7% during the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 867,943 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $32,912,000 after acquiring an additional 117,646 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its stake in Bank of America by 39.1% during the first quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,151,625 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $498,710,000 after acquiring an additional 3,696,948 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 2,305,415 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total value of $90,533,647.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 812,041,811 shares in the company, valued at $31,888,881,917.97. This trade represents a 0.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 $3,824,063.60. This represents a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 107,883,988 shares of company stock worth $4,344,741,752. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $46.75 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $358.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.00, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.35. 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 12 month low of $29.22 and a 12 month high of $46.84.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Bank of America’s quarterly revenue was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, July 24th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the financial services provider to repurchase up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed 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 2.22%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 37.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BAC. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price target on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

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.