NS Partners Ltd Has $19.12 Million Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

NS Partners Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 481,786 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,263 shares during the quarter. NS Partners Ltd’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $19,117,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. McAdam LLC grew its holdings in Bank of America by 2.1% during the 2nd quarter. McAdam LLC now owns 11,434 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $455,000 after acquiring an additional 238 shares during the period. Integrity Financial Corp WA lifted its position in Bank of America by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Integrity Financial Corp WA now owns 14,875 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $590,000 after acquiring an additional 240 shares in the last quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Bank of America by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. BTC Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,248 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $805,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. lifted its position in Bank of America by 15.1% in the 2nd quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co. now owns 1,892 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $75,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SNS Financial Group LLC lifted its position in Bank of America by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. SNS Financial Group LLC now owns 7,783 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $310,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BAC has been the topic of several recent research reports. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of 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 lifted their target price on shares of Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Citigroup raised shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.26.

Bank of America Stock Down 0.7 %

Bank of America stock opened at $46.41 on Wednesday. Bank of America Co. has a 1-year low of $29.32 and a 1-year high of $47.02. The firm has a market capitalization of $356.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.88, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 1.32. 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 has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.78 and a 200 day simple moving average of $40.51.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 15th. The financial services provider reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.03. Bank of America had a net margin of 12.48% and a return on equity of 10.09%. The firm had revenue of $25.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.82%.

Bank of America announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, July 24th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the financial services provider to buy up to 7.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at $3,824,063.60. The trade was a 48.91 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 10,975,008 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.87, for a total transaction of $437,573,568.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 910,731,659 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,310,871,244.33. This trade represents a 1.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 102,848,970 shares of company stock valued at $4,145,103,288 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.29% of the company’s stock.

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.