Barings LLC Sells 1,556 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Barings LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 21.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,689 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 1,556 shares during the period. Barings LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $250,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 2,028,439 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $89,150,000 after buying an additional 10,377 shares during the last quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 43.0% during the third quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,567,000 after buying an additional 11,873 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 237.6% during the third quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 36,089 shares during the last quarter. Keybank National Association OH lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Keybank National Association OH now owns 3,458,616 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $152,006,000 after buying an additional 38,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,546,871,000 after buying an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on BAC shares. Baird R W raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $48.64.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $41.39 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $314.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.85, a PEG ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.32. Bank of America Co. has a 12 month low of $34.15 and a 12 month high of $48.08. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $45.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The business’s revenue was up 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.70 EPS. Analysts expect that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 EPS for the current year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.51%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 32.30%.

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.