Marotta Asset Management Trims Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Marotta Asset Management cut its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,898 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 228 shares during the quarter. Marotta Asset Management’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $217,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in BAC. Fairway Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Kennebec Savings Bank purchased a new position in shares of Bank of America in the 3rd quarter worth about $29,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 525.9% during the 3rd quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 1,014 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 852 shares during the period. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in Bank of America during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $45,000. Finally, Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in Bank of America in the third quarter valued at approximately $73,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BAC has been the subject of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. UBS Group raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.50.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC traded down $0.89 during trading on Friday, reaching $45.32. The stock had a trading volume of 7,792,437 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,640,012. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $31.27 and a 52 week high of $48.08. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $45.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $347.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total transaction of $369,952,591.90. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. This represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company 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.