Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd Grows Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd grew its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 48.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 14,821 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,837 shares during the period. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $588,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. McAdam LLC boosted its stake in Bank of America by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 11,434 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the period. Integrity Financial Corp WA boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the third quarter. Integrity Financial Corp WA now owns 14,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $590,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares during the period. BTC Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Bank of America by 1.2% during the second quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $805,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. increased its holdings in Bank of America by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. now owns 1,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $75,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the period. Finally, SNS Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Bank of America by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. SNS Financial Group LLC now owns 7,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $310,000 after purchasing an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total transaction of $369,952,591.90. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. The trade was a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 77,946,615 shares of company stock valued at $3,152,226,690 over the last ninety days. 0.29% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $47.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup raised shares of 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 research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $47.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $366.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $29.32 and a one year high of $47.84. 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 business’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $40.82.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The firm’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued 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 dividend yield of 2.18%. 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.