Manning & Napier Group LLC Sells 180,157 Shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Manning & Napier Group LLC cut its stake in shares of Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 14.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 1,103,976 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after selling 180,157 shares during the quarter. Manning & Napier Group LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $37,171,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 108,111.3% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 193,168,025 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $6,397,725,000 after buying an additional 192,989,515 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Bank of America in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,436,543,000. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 97.3% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 41,290,694 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,130,538,000 after buying an additional 20,362,295 shares during the last quarter. Snider Financial Group raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 9,477.3% in the first quarter. Snider Financial Group now owns 14,448,357 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $5,956,000 after buying an additional 14,297,496 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Bank of America by 3,474.6% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 11,658,881 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $480,579,000 after buying an additional 11,332,721 shares during the last quarter. 70.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Barclays lifted their price target on Bank of America from $39.00 to $43.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Bank of America from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $32.00 to $41.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Bank of America from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer decreased their price objective on Bank of America from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $36.15.

Bank of America Trading Up 0.3 %

Bank of America stock traded up $0.11 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $37.92. The stock had a trading volume of 42,262,527 shares, compared to its average volume of 41,416,252. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.15. The stock has a market cap of $299.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.38. Bank of America Co. has a one year low of $24.96 and a one year high of $38.00. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $34.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.35.

Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, January 12th. The financial services provider reported $0.70 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.69 by $0.01. Bank of America had a return on equity of 11.38% and a net margin of 15.42%. The company had revenue of $22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $23.70 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Bank of America Co. will post 3.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Bank of America Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 1st will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, February 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.53%. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.27%.

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.