Hartford Funds Management Co LLC Has $729,000 Stock Position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC)

Hartford Funds Management Co LLC increased its position in Bank of America Co. (NYSE:BAC) by 3.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,382 shares of the financial services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC’s holdings in Bank of America were worth $729,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Accent Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. Accent Capital Management LLC now owns 39,500 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $1,567,000 after buying an additional 11,873 shares during the period. Summit Global Investments grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 237.6% during the 3rd quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 51,278 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after buying an additional 36,089 shares during the period. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 125.8% during the 3rd quarter. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP now owns 61,002 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $2,421,000 after buying an additional 33,983 shares during the period. Banco Santander S.A. grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 173.7% during the 3rd quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 583,412 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $23,150,000 after buying an additional 370,275 shares during the period. Finally, Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its position in shares of Bank of America by 27.1% during the 1st quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 98,189 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $3,734,000 after buying an additional 20,916 shares during the period. 70.71% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Bank of America from $50.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Phillip Securities upgraded Bank of America from a “neutral” rating to an “accumulate” rating and set a $44.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Bank of America from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of Bank of America in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Bank of America from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.26.

Bank of America Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of Bank of America stock opened at $47.00 on Friday. Bank of America Co. has a 12-month low of $29.32 and a 12-month high of $47.22. The stock has a market cap of $360.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.09, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The business’s 50 day moving average is $42.24 and its 200-day moving average is $40.67.

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

Bank of America Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 27th. Shareholders 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 yield of 2.21%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. Bank of America’s dividend payout ratio is 37.82%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Bank of America

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

About Bank of America

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.