Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. Raises Stock Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 7.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 119,889 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,543 shares during the quarter. Canandaigua National Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $5,269,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Umpqua Bank lifted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Umpqua Bank now owns 74,611 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,967,000 after purchasing an additional 2,499 shares during the period. Chris Bulman Inc acquired a new stake in Bank of America in the 2nd quarter worth about $138,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 37.2% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 559,784 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after buying an additional 151,864 shares during the period. Lynch & Associates IN increased its stake in shares of Bank of America by 3.7% during the 2nd quarter. Lynch & Associates IN now owns 146,051 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,808,000 after acquiring an additional 5,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 110.1% during the 2nd quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 196,550 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $7,815,000 after acquiring an additional 102,994 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on BAC shares. Phillip Securities raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Bank of America from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Monday, December 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.07.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE BAC traded up $0.58 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $45.39. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 30,205,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 24,856,730. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.01. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $31.27 and a 52 week high of $48.08. The stock has a market cap of $348.27 billion, a PE ratio of 16.51, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. Equities research 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 was paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th were issued a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.29%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

In other Bank of America news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of Bank of America 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 sale, the insider now owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. The trade was a 1.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Bank of America Company 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.