First County Bank CT Decreases Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

First County Bank CT lowered its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 34.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,511 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 2,902 shares during the quarter. First County Bank CT’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in BAC. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 0.6% during the third quarter. Longfellow Investment Management Co. LLC now owns 37,393 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,484,000 after acquiring an additional 227 shares during the last quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in Bank of America by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Beacon Investment Advisory Services Inc. now owns 20,863 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $828,000 after buying an additional 231 shares in the last quarter. Integrity Financial Corp WA grew its holdings in Bank of America by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Integrity Financial Corp WA now owns 14,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $590,000 after buying an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 2.1% in the third quarter. Cahill Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 12,231 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $485,000 after acquiring an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 1.8% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 13,923 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $552,000 after acquiring an additional 250 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. HSBC raised shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $43.00 to $53.00 in a report on Tuesday. Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.50.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares in the company, valued at $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Performance

NYSE:BAC opened at $46.10 on Wednesday. Bank of America Co. has a twelve month low of $31.27 and a twelve month high of $48.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $353.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.76, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.33. 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $45.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.09.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 earnings per share 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.25 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up .4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.