Independent Advisor Alliance Grows Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Independent Advisor Alliance boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 5.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 221,058 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,971 shares during the quarter. Independent Advisor Alliance’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $8,772,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of BAC. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 48.4% during the third quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 14,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $588,000 after purchasing an additional 4,837 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Bank of America in the third quarter valued at about $2,723,000. Davis R M Inc. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 7.0% during the third quarter. Davis R M Inc. now owns 502,726 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $19,948,000 after acquiring an additional 32,999 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 19.2% during the third quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 7,116 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 1,144 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in 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 valued at $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on BAC shares. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.26.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 2,305,415 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.27, for a total transaction of $90,533,647.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 812,041,811 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,888,881,917.97. The trade was a 0.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This represents a 48.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 85,119,690 shares of company stock worth $3,438,777,236 in the last quarter. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of BAC stock opened at $47.00 on Monday. 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 cap of $360.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.09, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.32. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $42.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.69. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $29.32 and a fifty-two week high of $47.22.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.