Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC Invests $2.02 Million in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC bought a new stake in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 51,010 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,024,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BAC. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 57,539,506 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,288,347,000 after buying an additional 895,884 shares during the period. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised 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 purchasing an additional 59,853 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted 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. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3.8% during the 3rd 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 increased its position in Bank of America by 15.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 13,502,778 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $535,790,000 after purchasing an additional 1,783,631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.71% of the company’s stock.

Bank of America Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE:BAC opened at $47.00 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization 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. Bank of America Co. has a 52 week low of $29.32 and a 52 week high of $47.22. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $42.24 and a 200-day moving average of $40.67.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on BAC. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price objective on shares of Bank of America from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.26.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 10,975,008 shares of Bank of America stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.87, for a total transaction of $437,573,568.96. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 910,731,659 shares in the company, valued at $36,310,871,244.33. The trade was a 1.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Bernard A. Mensah sold 92,000 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 96,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,824,063.60. This represents a 48.91 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 96,094,698 shares of company stock worth $3,876,350,805. 0.29% of the stock is owned by company 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.