Westfield Capital Management Co. LP Has $72.36 Million Stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 647.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,823,667 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,579,767 shares during the quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $72,363,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the second 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 acquiring an additional 895,884 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.8% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,415,630 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $611,692,000 after purchasing an additional 569,385 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 15.2% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 13,502,778 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $535,790,000 after buying an additional 1,783,631 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on BAC. Phillip Securities raised Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded Bank of America from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of Bank of America from $49.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BAC opened at $47.00 on Friday. 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $29.32 and a 52 week high of $47.22. The firm has a market cap of $360.63 billion, a PE ratio of 17.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.32. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $42.24 and its 200-day moving average is $40.67.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.82%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Bank of America news, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.80, for a total transaction of $3,661,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 96,082 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,824,063.60. This trade represents a 48.91 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 8,694,538 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.55, for a total value of $369,952,591.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 766,305,462 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $32,606,297,408.10. This trade represents a 1.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 96,094,698 shares of company stock worth $3,876,350,805. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Bank of America Company 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.