Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC Has $525,000 Holdings in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC reduced its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,230 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 359 shares during the period. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $525,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Bank of America by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 140,255,970 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,546,871,000 after buying an additional 1,700,141 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Bank of America by 1.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 895,884 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 worth $1,794,164,000 after purchasing an additional 1,731,003 shares during the last quarter. Sanders Capital LLC boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 601,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its position 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 worth $676,264,000 after purchasing an additional 59,853 shares in the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 11,422,560 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 835,908,435 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,088,345,979.30. This trade represents a 1.35 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,223,897 shares of company stock worth $2,232,505,985. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Bank of America from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Bank of America from $50.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 3rd. Phillip Securities upgraded shares of Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $46.00 target price on shares of Bank of America in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Bank of America currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.92.

Bank of America Price Performance

Shares of BAC traded down $0.53 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $45.55. 5,106,266 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 38,101,781. The company has a market cap of $349.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.33. Bank of America Co. has a 1 year low of $31.27 and a 1 year high of $48.08. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $44.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.43. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

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

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.28%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s payout ratio is 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.