Freestone Capital Holdings LLC Reduces Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC lowered its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 275,108 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 5,876 shares during the period. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $12,091,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA raised its holdings in Bank of America by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel CA now owns 20,000 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $879,000 after purchasing an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. Prossimo Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Prossimo Advisors LLC now owns 8,880 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $390,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares in the last quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Marino Stram & Associates LLC now owns 13,204 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $580,000 after purchasing an additional 222 shares in the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management raised its holdings in Bank of America by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 8,291 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $364,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Traveka Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Bank of America by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Traveka Wealth LLC now owns 8,685 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $382,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on BAC. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Bank of America from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, fifteen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.58.

Bank of America Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE BAC opened at $42.27 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $45.73 and a 200 day moving average of $43.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $321.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $34.15 and a 12-month high of $48.08.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 16th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.12 billion. Bank of America had a net margin of 14.10% and a return on equity of 10.29%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.70 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Bank of America Co. will post 3.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a $0.26 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.46%. Bank of America’s payout ratio is currently 32.30%.

About Bank of America

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.