Point72 Hong Kong Ltd Buys 88,252 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Point72 Hong Kong Ltd boosted its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 1,930.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 92,823 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 88,252 shares during the quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $3,683,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BAC. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,288,347,000 after purchasing an additional 895,884 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in Bank of America by 4.0% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,215,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,794,164,000 after acquiring an additional 1,731,003 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Bank of America by 2.8% during the third quarter. Sanders Capital LLC now owns 22,341,213 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $886,499,000 after acquiring an additional 601,211 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 17,042,952 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $676,264,000 after acquiring an additional 59,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Bank of America by 23.6% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 16,260,822 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $646,693,000 after purchasing an additional 3,109,197 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 11,422,560 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.78, for a total transaction of $465,811,996.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 835,908,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,088,345,979.30. This trade represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold 70,007,916 shares of company stock valued at $2,829,836,123 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BAC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.5 %

BAC stock opened at $47.51 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.04 and a fifty-two week high of $48.08. The company has a market capitalization of $364.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.32. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $43.02 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.80.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.25 billion. Bank of America had a return on equity of 10.09% and a net margin of 12.48%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.