Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) Short Interest Up 9.3% in September

Itaú Unibanco Holding S.A. (NYSE:ITUB) saw a large growth in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 25,910,000 shares, a growth of 9.3% from the August 31st total of 23,710,000 shares. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 17,280,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Itaú Unibanco by 67.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,375 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755 shares in the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. grew its stake in Itaú Unibanco by 571.3% in the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 6,888 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $48,000 after purchasing an additional 5,862 shares in the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Itaú Unibanco during the 1st quarter worth about $49,000. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Itaú Unibanco during the 2nd quarter worth about $65,000. Finally, Sunpointe LLC bought a new stake in shares of Itaú Unibanco during the 4th quarter worth about $72,000.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ITUB has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley raised Itaú Unibanco from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. UBS Group lowered Itaú Unibanco from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Itaú Unibanco currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $7.05.

Itaú Unibanco Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of Itaú Unibanco stock traded down $0.12 on Tuesday, reaching $6.53. 29,103,989 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,809,258. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $6.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $6.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $63.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.34. Itaú Unibanco has a fifty-two week low of $5.12 and a fifty-two week high of $7.27.

Itaú Unibanco (NYSE:ITUB) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The bank reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.01. Itaú Unibanco had a return on equity of 19.14% and a net margin of 11.39%. The business had revenue of $16.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Itaú Unibanco will post 0.78 EPS for the current year.

Itaú Unibanco Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.0031 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Itaú Unibanco’s dividend payout ratio is 4.05%.

Itaú Unibanco Company Profile

Itaú Unibanco Holding SA offers a range of financial products and services to individuals and corporate customers in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Retail Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Activities with the Market + Corporation. It offers current account; loans; credit and debit cards; investment and commercial banking services; real estate lending services; financing and investment services; economic, financial and brokerage advisory; and leasing and foreign exchange services.